Scotland Yard has lost almost a tenth of its armed officers in the past four years, prompting concerns about “serious morale problems” and recruitment issues.
There were 2,841 authorised firearms officers (AFOs) in the Metropolitan Police on March 31, 2019. The headcount fell, however, by 8.7 per cent to 2,595 at the end of April this year, according to data from the London Assembly.
A senior police source said the Met could be experiencing a genuine recruitment problem as firearms was a “very hard course to pass”.
Officers undergo rigorous selection and training to become firearms officers and their training is dependent on the role they are required to perform, according to the College of Policing, which sets guidance for forces in England and Wales.
Training is governed by the college’s National Police Firearms Training Curriculum, which, in conjunction with the Met’s chief firearms instructor, “ensures relevant training modules are completed by all officers within their specific role profile”.
The senior police source told The Times: “There are serious morale problems and officers don’t feel supported. I fully expect people to be concerned about working in an environment labelled institutionally biased in all its forms and the leadership hasn’t addressed all their concerns. There could very much be a wider recruitment issue.”
After the Paris terrorist attacks in 2015 a programme was drawn up to train territorial support group officers as AFOs to make more resources available in the event of a “marauding terror attack”, defined as a violent, fast-moving attack where assailants move through different locations trying to find and kill as many people as possible. That programme was abandoned and led to the loss of a significant number of trained AFOs.
Susan Hall, the Tories’ policing and crime spokeswoman in the London Assembly, said: “We’ve already seen a significant fall in the number of firearms officers in London and now the situation appears to be reaching crisis point. I welcome the review into protections given to police firearms officers and hope it’s not too late.”
The Met played down reports of armed officers protesting after one of their colleagues was charged with the murder of an unarmed man. Chris Kaba, 24, was struck by a single bullet after police officers made “tactical contact” with the Audi he was driving in Streatham Hill, south London, on September 5 last year. Kaba died in hospital. A post-mortem examination gave a provisional cause of death as a gunshot wound to the head.
The firearms officer, known only as NX121 for legal reasons, appeared at the Old Bailey in London last week charged with Kaba’s murder. He was bailed and will reappear for a plea and trial preparation hearing at the same court on December 1.
At the weekend, dozens of armed officers pulled back from their duties amid concerns over a “shift in the way the decisions they take in the most challenging circumstances will be judged”, the Met said. On Monday some returned to frontline patrols.
Scotland Yard said it had “a significant firearms capability and we continue to have armed officers deployed in communities across London”. A “limited number” of officers from other police forces were drafted in to support non-counterterrorism armed policing.
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, reassured Londoners yesterday that there were “enough firearms officers keeping our city safe”, adding: “They do an incredibly difficult job, a job under extreme pressure. They have unique responsibilities. The key thing is to make sure there is a system of scrutiny and accountability that has the confidence of everyone.”
He said Sir Mark Rowley, the Met commissioner, was “keeping me abreast of developments” but warned people to be careful about saying anything that could jeopardise live criminal proceedings.
How common are fatal police shootings?
In the days since a Metropolitan Police firearms officer was charged with the murder of an unarmed man, attention has turned to how fatal police shootings in London compare with those in other big cities (David Woode writes).
Over the past 33 years there have been 33 fatal police shootings in the Met area. Since 2022 there have been 15 police killings in Paris at traffic stops alone. In New York, 21 people were shot in incidents involving the police in 2021.
Fatal police shootings in England and Wales are rare, with two incidents recorded last year. Of the 33 fatal shootings in the Met police area since 1990, according to Inquest, a charity concerned with state-related deaths, three have led to officers being charged with murder.
A Met firearms officer, known as NX121 for legal reasons, appeared in court last Thursday after the Crown Prosecution Service authorised a murder charge over the fatal shooting of Chris Kaba. The 24-year-old was struck by a single gunshot during a police operation as he travelled in an Audi car in Streatham Hill, south London, on September 5 last year. He died in hospital.
A post-mortem examination gave a provisional cause of death as a gunshot to the head. The officer was bailed to reappear at the Old Bailey in London for a plea and trial preparation hearing on December 1.
In October 1997 PC Patrick Hodgson, the first officer in England and Wales to be charged with murder after shooting a suspect while on duty, was cleared by a jury. David Ewin, 38, was shot dead in Barnes, southwest London, in February 1995. A court heard that Ewin, a suspected car thief, had been trying to escape until Hodgson twice fired his handgun.
