Central Operations Specialist Firearms Command (CO19)

Armed Response Units (ARV's) & Specialist Firearms Officers (SFO's)

The Metropolitan Police Service first introduced 'Armed Response Vehicles' to the streets of London in 1991.

These vehicles are crewed by uniformed officers who have been selected and trained to stabilise and control armed incidents, stop and search suspects, their vehicles and to search premises for armed suspects.

These officers are the first 'Armed officers' to arrive on the scene and in serious cases can call for the support of specialist firearms teams.

Each Armed Response Vehicle (ARV) is crewed by three officers in police uniform who patrol specific areas of London to ensure the fastest response. Each member of the crew has specific functions whilst responding to calls. The 'driver' is responsible for getting the crew to the scene in the fastest, safest way possible having regard to the public presence on the roads. The 'operator' is responsible for the many in-car communications and extracting the maximum amount of information prior to their arrival. The 'observer' in the rear of the vehicle has a London map book and provides the driver with a suitable route.

When the officers first arrive they will make an immediate assessment. If an armed containment is deemed necessary to isolate an armed suspect from the public, then two of the crew will deploy leaving one to control the incident, calling for further armed support and liasing with the local senior police officer. All these officers are personally armed with 'Glock' 17 self-loading pistols and two of the officers have access to 'Heckler and Koch' MP5 carbines as shown here.

Supervising officers from the firearms department also patrol in marked police vehicles and attend incidents as they develop. They take charge of the armed officers present and give the local senior officer tactical advice on how to resolve these incidents in the safest possible way. They carry additional equipment, which may have to be used particularly if force is needed to gain entry to premises.

In addition to the 24-hour response provided by the ARV's the MPS also employs a number of Specialist Firearms Officers (SFO's) to provide an enhanced firearms capability to the MPS. These officers undergo advanced firearms training and are also available 24 hours a day.

Their role includes dealing with all pre-planned operations as well as providing the MPS with a hostage-rescue capability. Specialist Firearms Officers can be deployed at any firearms incident in the MPS subject to the authority of a senior officer.

The workload of these ARV's has increased dramatically since their inception. In their first year they were actively deployed on 132 occasions. In 1999, they deployed 1,440 times. 2000 this figure was 1441. In 2001 it was 1058 and 2002 2490 times.

Not all calls result in an armed deployment, many calls turn out to be false or not armed related. In 1999 ARV's responded to 15,901 emergency calls. In 2000 this figure was 12763, in 2001 10463 and 13394 in 2002.

ARV's are there to protect and respect the people of London. They are on patrol 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 52 weeks of the year.

If you have information on 'Armed Crime' or any other crime, please phone CRIMESTOPPERS now on 0800 555 111.