Recruitment drive for more armed Lancashire police

Police chiefs in Lancashire have launched a drive to recruit more trained armed officers.
A  police officer with a Heckler & Koch G36 carbine, similar to the ones used in LancashireA  police officer with a Heckler & Koch G36 carbine, similar to the ones used in Lancashire
A police officer with a Heckler & Koch G36 carbine, similar to the ones used in Lancashire

The constablulary has advertised vacancies for a number of Armed Response Vehicle officers.

And trained officers from other forces throughout England and Wales have been invited to apply.

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Last month it was reported that 1,500 more armed officers are to be deployed on Britain’s streets.

Already 600 new armed officers have been trained by London’s Metropolitan Police to tackle the increased terror threat following the terrorist attacks in Paris and Nice.

A Lancashire Police spokesman said: “We constantly review intelligence to assess what the threat is to Lancashire and to ensure that we have adequate firearms coverage so that we are able to quickly respond to any part of the county in order to mitigate that threat.”

Lancashire has its own specialised firearms unit based at locations around the county.

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In the past the force has at any one time had nine armed officers on patrol. The standard issue weapon is the Glock SLP whilst officers are also armed with the Heckler & Koch G36 carbine. Tasers are carried by armed response officers as well as officers from the operations support unit and appropriately trained local officers.

The Police Federation of England and Wales raised concerns earlier this month about the time it would take to recruit 1,500 new armed officers nationally.