You could put in a freedom of information request as to the content of the log?
Then it’ll stop the speculation.
If someone has reported being shot at, or something else malicious, it might explain the response. If it is a case of ‘man seen with gun, in a green jacket, in a wood’ then clearly the constabulary need a bit of direction with regards countryside matters.
In many parts of the country the latter would be instantly downgraded, worst case they’d send a beat bobby to have a polite chat.
Sorry, but that’s not quite how it goes these days.
An unarmed officer sent to a potential ‘firearms incident’ ?
Would you like to be the supervisor who does that and if/when it all goes badly and the unarmed officer (or his family) claim you were negligent in doing so? you knew or suspected a firearm was involved but you still sent a man/woman/person to investigate without the means to protect themselves. The HSE would be involved, the Force would be prosecuted and sued.
Quite simply, time has moved on within the Police as everywhere else. They simply cannot leave an expensive resource like an ARV crew out of a ‘firearms incident’ as that’s what they’re there to deal with.
The unarmed officer should be kept well out of the way of any real or suspected firearms job for their own safety.
I’m not saying that if I was stopped in my car for some traffic offence (God forbid) I’d expect a full armed extraction by an ARV crew from behind ‘cover from view or fire’, but the incident would’ve started out as a traffic stop rather than a firearms job.
Plus - I will leave you with this thought.
In my recent experience most of the armed Police I have worked with are
VERY young in service. To the extent that you can actually apply to join the ARV’s whilst still in your probation. The relevant courses will not start until you have 2 years service, but you could be selected.
There are reasons for this; the higher fitness level precludes lots of officers with niggling injuries, the yearly medicals with higher levels of hearing and eyesight tests also takes its toll. If you bear in mind that initial Police training is around 6 months, followed by a month or two being tutored, then an officer stepping out of an ARV could have had as little as only 16 months actual Police experience before entering the world of armed Policing. Those officers haven’t got enough background in dealing with people anyway, now they’re doing it with a firearm. It not like giving Dixon Of Dock Green a Glock 17 and expecting that mix of old style coppering backed up with a firearm.
As JAGDMATCH posted - once they step outside their SOP’s and policy, they will not be supported by management.
I have a great deal of sympathy with the OP and his friend, but in the world we are currently in I also think the action taken by the officers was sadly, probably correct from the point of view of their training and following their SOP’s and Policies.
However - if he feels he needs to then a letter to the relevant Police Authority could result in something. Perhaps he’d get a chance to sit down with one of the officers managers and put forward his point of view and listen to the reply.
Sometimes this is more revealing and rewarding than a formal Complaint Against Police.
