Firearms officers have been praised for their professionalism and restraint after it was announced that out of 15,000 firearms-related incidents which armed police attended, officers only discharged their firearms on 15 occasions.
The news came as the National Police Chiefs’ Council Firearms Lead, Simon Chesterman, addressed the Police Federation of England and Wales during their seminar on Post Incident Procedures (PIPs).
Unlike many countries, police officers in the UK (excluding Northern Ireland) are not routinely armed.
Instead, each force has highly trained firearms officers who work alongside unarmed response team officers.

Counter Terrorist Specialist Firearms Officers are only deployed during ‘active’ terrorist incidents
CC Chesterman praised the restraint shown by armed officers in dangerous situations, and the quality of the training they receive to deal with life and death incidents.
But he called for further training for all officers on gathering best evidence and dealing with trauma, to prepare them for the thorough and independent investigation that follows a Death or Serious Injury (DSI).
CC Chesterman told the seminar that he believed they were letting frontline officers down by not extending best practice, learned from armed incidents and the evolving Authorised Professional Practice (APP), into other areas of policing.
He called for every officer and Federation rep to know the APP guidance inside out, and for further training to be provided for all officers on PIPs.
CLICK here to join our Emergency Services News community on Facebook.
Our social media group/community is open to both the public and emergency services personnel.
It is also a great place to share any emergency services related content (such as videos) which you have filmed.
If you have a story or video that you would like us to cover/share, then you can contact our team via contact@emergency-services.news
We also cover stories which relate to the NHS, the armed forces and the security services.
Before you go...
We need your help. As former emergency services & armed forces personnel, we pride ourselves on bringing you important, fast-moving and breaking news stories & videos which are free from the negative bias which is often directed at the emergency services & NHS by some sections of the mainstream media.
One of the reasons we started 'Emergency Services News' back in 2018 was because we became tired of reading badly informed stories about the emergency services & NHS which seemed only ever to highlight negative aspects of the job.
We want to be the unheard voice of the remarkable men and women who serve in the emergency services, NHS and armed forces. And with around 500k page views each month, we are getting there!
As income from ads, the mainstay source of income for most publishers, continues to decline; we need the help of you, our readers.
You can support emergency services news from as little as £1. It only takes a minute. Every contribution, however big or small, is vital for our future.
Please help us to continue to highlight the life-saving work of the emergency services, NHS and armed forces by becoming a supporter.