West Mercia Police firearm operations down 10 per cent for year
The number of firearms operations carried out by police in the region has fallen in the past year, new figures have shown.
The figures, which have been released by the Home Office, show a 10 per cent reduction in firearms operations for West Mercia Police – the force that covers Shropshire – for 2019/20.
In total the force carried out 252 operations over the 12 months – a figure that means it is amongst the lowest in the country for such operations.
Head of Operational Support, Chief Superintendent Paul Moxley, said that any such operation is only carried out with careful assessment.
He said: “The safety of the public is of course always our absolutely priority and in order to ensure that we can achieve that, it is sometimes necessary to deploy armed officers. Every such incident that requires an armed response is always carefully assessed and managed to ensure that we can maximise the safety of the public and our officers and staff during such incidents.” Neighbouring West Midlands Police carried out around 2,500 firearms operations over the year, although the number was down 24 per cent on the previous year.
Discharged
As the two biggest forces, West Midlands Police and the Metropolitan Police accounted for 35 per cent of all police firearm operations in the country during the period.
In almost all cases, weapons were not fired.
Nationally, operations fell by four per cent between April 2019 and March this year to 19,372.
This was 820 fewer than the previous period and sees the first drop in usage since the year to March 2016, a Home Office report said. Officers’ guns were discharged at people in five incidents, down from 13 in the previous period.
This is the lowest number of incidents since 2013/14 when there were four.
West Midlands Police carried out 2,562 operations – seven a day on average – only behind the Met on 4,195.
Chief Inspector Jason Nunn, from WMP’s firearms unit, said: “Dangerous weapons in the wrong hands can put lives at risk. The safety of the public is paramount and we’ll continue to act on information and intelligence we receive.”
In the North East there was a 119 per rise in the number of operations (387).
