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Rural police would be 'sitting ducks' in terror attacks Rural police would be 'sitting ducks' in terrorist attacks
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Rural police officers fear they would be “sitting ducks” in the event of an armed terrorist attack, a Police Federation branch chairman has claimed. Police in rural areas fear they could be “sitting ducks” during a terrorist attack, a Police Federation chairman has said.
John Apter, the head of the Hampshire branch of the the body that represents rank and file officers, told the BBC that a national shortage of armed officers could leave police in isolated areas “unarmed and vulnerable”. Officers in isolated areas, where potential terrorist targets, such as power plants, are located, could be left “unarmed and vulnerable” as they wait for armed officers to arrive, John Apter, the head of the Hampshire branch said.
After the terror attacks in Brussels, the government announced that more firearms officers would be trained. His comments come after the country’s top firearms officer and a deputy chief constable, Simon Chesterman, said forces were struggling to recruit enough officers willing to carry a gun because they feared being treated as criminal suspects if they used their weapon in the line of duty.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s File on 4, Apter said there were potential targets in rural and coastal areas – such as power plants – but that armed officers could be more than 70 miles away in an emergency.
“Being realistic, if a firearms unit was coming from the middle of the county you are still talking about 30 miles away – you are not talking about a few minutes,” he said. He said the distance would mean an understandable delay.
“So the only officers that you have available are unarmed and vulnerable officers and they are the officers that are saying to me that in a terrorist situation they would be sitting ducks,” he added.
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His concerns come after figures released last month showed that the number of firearms officers in England and Wales fell by nearly a fifth in five years. Apter told the BBC: “Being realistic, if a firearms unit was coming from the middle of the county you are still talking about 30 miles away, you are not talking about a few minutes. There would be an understandable delay.
Earlier in April. David Cameron announced that more armed officers were to be stationed across the country to deal with a Paris-style attack. “If a firearms unit is the other side of the county they could be 70 miles away so you are talking a significant distance.
Forces are training about 1,500 extra personnel as part of counter-terrorism efforts, with 400 ready to be deployed to cities outside London around the clock. “So the only officers that you have available are unarmed and vulnerable officers and they are the officers that are saying to me that in a terrorist situation they would be sitting ducks.”
The police minister, Mike Penning, told the BBC that £143m had been committed over the next five years to provide “a national uplift in armed policing capability”. Figures released last month showed that the number of firearms officers in England and Wales had fallen by nearly a fifth in five years.
Earlier in April, David Cameron announced that more armed officers were to be stationed around the country in case of a Paris-style attack.
Forces are training around 1,500 extra personnel as part of counterterrorism efforts, with 400 ready to be deployed around the clock to cities outside London.
A representative of firearms officers in England and Wales said that in the event of a determined terrorist gun attack, significant parts of Britain would be left vulnerable.
Che Donald, who represents the 5,647 current firearms officers in the Police Federation, said that while major cities, such as London, had sufficient cover, other large towns and cities did not. “Currently there are not enough firearms officers who could deal with an incident in quite a lot of areas of Britain.”
British police chiefs devised new strategies after the November attacks in Paris, which they viewed as a “game changer” because the terrorists used new tactics and displayed a greater capability to kill on western territory than previously thought.
Key among the new plans was the need to deploy armed police officers, faster and in greater numbers than before, in the event of an attack. The theory is that it would take a minimum of three armed officers to confront and neutralise one armed terrorist.
Police officers’ wariness about carrying guns have risen since the arrest in December 2015 of a police officer on suspicion of murder. The officer, known as W80, was arrested by the Independent Police Complaints Commission after a suspect, Jermaine Baker, was shot dead in December in Wood Green, north London.