Firearms officers in the Metropolitan Police only discharged their weapons twice in the past year despite responding to thousands of incidents in London, new figures show. While police officers do not routinely carry guns in the UK, forces may use specially-trained firearms officers in response to some crimes.
The Gun Control Network said the low rates of police firearm discharge are “very welcome”. Figures from the Home Office show the Met Police deployed these officers in 3,277 operations in the year to March, down from 3,685 the year before – with firearms officers fatally shooting two people at crime scenes, in Southwark and Dagenham.
While officers have been called to 18,061 incidents in the past five years, there was a 4 per cent drop in the number of operations across England and Wales from 18,400 in 2022-23 to 17,589 last year.
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The Met was responsible for more operations than any other force in the country, with 19 per cent of all operations happening in the capital. This was followed by West Midlands Police, with 12 per cent. Dr Peter Squires, of the GCN, said the fall in the number of deployments “reflects a welcome fall in the frequency of incidents requiring police armed attendance”.
He added: “Following the police shooting of Chris Kaba in September 2022 and the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision to charge the officer responsible, there have been rumblings of disquiet amongst armed officers and a number have resigned their armed authority, further accelerating the decline in numbers of armed officers.”
Dr Squires continued: “The extremely low rates of police firearm discharge are very welcome, as are the underlying low rates of gun-enabled crime, necessitating police armed deployments.” He said falling rates support the argument that containing the proliferation of firearms, there is less need for armed policing.
The figures show there were 2,530 police officers trained to use firearms in London – a fall on the 2,592 a year earlier. Despite this, firearms were “intentionally discharged” at a person just twice in 2023-24, compared to 10 times a year earlier. The first was Giedrius Vasilvejas in Dagenham on November 23, 2023, after he called 999 and informed police he had a gun.
The second person to be shot fatally by The Met in the past year was Bryce Hodgson on January 30. Hodgson was shot after breaching a restraining order for stalking and breaking into a home armed with a crossbow.
The Home Office notes it is the sixth consecutive year that the number of operationally deployable firearms officers has fallen, with 5,861 available across England and Wales. This was down from a peak of 6,621 in 2019.
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