The unveiling of additional armed police in London has been met with scepticism by the body representing rank-and-file officers as it said it would take two years for the targeted increase in marksmen to be met nationally.
Advertisement
Sir Bernard said there would be more armed officers at well-known landmarks following terrorist attacks in Europe.
He added that the “reality” of having to deal with attackers requires armed police who will “use force to stop those attackers in their aim”.
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, said an undisclosed number of the force’s planned additional 600 marksmen were now fully trained.
The Scotland Yard on Sunday warned that a terror attack in the United Kingdom is a case of “when” rather than “if” and the current threat level of “severe” in the country meant an attack was imminent.
Another intelligence source said the ISIS terrorists were increasingly going after “softer targets”, as well as seeking people with mental problems. Our neighbourhood officers – the ones who know their streets, who know their environment and who know numerous names of the people in their communities – are our major weapon.
The national threat level has been at “severe” since August 2014 – one below the highest level of “critical”, which means an attack is expected imminently.
“I want the public to know that we have substantial resources and a range of tactics that we can call on to protect them”, he said.
The expansion of armed police is taking place alongside military contingency plans for as many as 10,000 troops to be deployed in response to an attack.
“It has often been said that “communities defeat terrorism” and now that’s more important than ever before”, he says.
But Mr White expressed concern over cuts to neighbourhood police teams.
The police boss also told the public to run rather than play dead if there was a terror attack in London. This increases armed officers by 600 to 2,800.
Both he and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said that while the terror threat has not changed, the police force should respond to the incidents seen on the continent.
Advertisement
“I want them to be friendly; I want them to approach the public and to be approachable to the public”.
