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Article: Police have fewer firearms officers ; Firearms officer numbers in Devon and Cornwall police have dropped by almost a fifth in a decade, the force has revealed.
- Article from:
- Herald Express (Torquay UK)
- Article date:
- January 1, 2008
CopyrightCopyright 2008 Herald Express (Torquay UK). Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Firearms officer numbers in Devon and Cornwall police have
dropped by almost a fifth in a decade, the force has revealed.
There are now only 134 armed police in the two counties compared
with 151 in 1996.
But Devon and Cornwall police say they have changed firearms
duties to have full-time officers dedicated to the speciality.
Supt Richard Baker, head of special operations for Devon and
Cornwall, explained: "There has been a drop in the number but it is
not great.
"We have become more professional in the way we do things.
"We had a review about six years ago and found we had dormant
firearms officers who were not being used.
"We have changed to rapid response vehicles and we had four of
them ...