London, England – ‘Hundreds’ of Metropolitan Police firearms officers are voluntarily stepping back from armed duties.
This decision comes after one of their colleagues was charged with the murder of 24-year-old Chris Kaba in South London last year.
The Metropolitan Police have stated that the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to bring a charge against the officer “signals a shift in the way the decisions they take in the most challenging circumstances will be judged.”
Social Media Backing
The public sentiment echoes the concerns of these officers.
Emergency Services News conducted a poll on X, in which a staggering 97.7% of respondents supported the officers’ decision to relinquish their firearms authorisations.
Paul, a social media user, said, “I would support every AFO in the country if they handed their authorisation in. Let the country survive without them.”
Andy added, “Let’s get behind these officers and support them. There needs to be an emergency overhaul of the system and the IOPC!”
Record Departure
Adding to the gravity of the situation, Metropolitan Police data reveals that a total of 9,347 officers left the force in the year 2022/23.
This marks the highest number of officers to leave the Met in a single year since comparable headcount data began in 2006/07.
Statement from the Metropolitan Police Federation
The Metropolitan Police Federation, which represents officers, weighed in on the issue, stating:
“Being a firearms officer in London is one of the world’s toughest jobs. Officers, who volunteer for the role, know the responsibility and accountability that come with it.”
They added, “This decision will leave serving Metropolitan Police colleagues concerned as they go about their incredibly difficult and dangerous work.
“The officer in question retains our full support as we now go through the legal process.”
Looking Ahead
As criminal proceedings continue, senior Met officers, including Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, are engaged in ongoing discussions with firearms officers, who are “reflecting on the potential price of such weighty responsibilities.”
This situation comes at a time when London is experiencing a notable increase in firearms-related incidents.
According to the Metropolitan Police, there were 237 firearms-related incidents in the city in the 12 months leading up to March 2023, marking a 24% increase compared to the previous year.
Additionally, the number of shootings in London for the same period rose by 25%, with 69 recorded incidents.
This uptick in firearms-related incidents and shootings is a grave concern for Londoners.
With fewer specialised officers to respond to such high-risk situations, the onus ultimately falls on ordinary, law-abiding citizens who are left to bear the brunt of this insecurity.
The public may now be faced with slower response times and less effective interventions in critical incidents involving firearms, thereby increasing the risks to their safety.
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If an armed, uniformed officer points a gun at you and yells instructions, you have to be some sort of terminal idiot to ignore them. Kaba appears to be one such terminal idiot. As usual, everyone is now saying what a wonderful chap he was, fine and upstanding. They conveniently omit to mention that he had done time for causing fear and dismay with an imitation fire arm. Some of these look exactly like the real thing and are only exposed as imitations upon close inspection.
Such close inspection is rather difficult when the car he was driving was busy trying to ram police cars out of the way. These are the actions of someone with lots to hide and the car already had firearms markers on it. All of this is in the public domain and the fact that he turned out to be unarmed is utterly irrelevant. Nobody knew that at the time and had he complied, exited the car quietly, none of this would have happened. Sorry, he brought it on himself.
When Bliar first rolled into Downing street he had the biggest display of armed officers possible, within months he’d deigned them their personal FAC licenced pistols many practiced with, with fellow CIVILIANS off duty (I shot with some of them in a CIVILIAN club, and a Police club). Later he sold out many former AFO’s who’d done their duty to the Provisional IRA, their retribution squads using the information passed over as part of the ‘good friday agreement’ to target former Police and other security services and military service members. This is just the latest reason not to become an AFO…