01 April 2016
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Following the terrorist attacks in Brussels last month, the UK government has announced that it will create a number of new armed policing units in cities across the UK. This follows on from January announcements to recruit 600 new armed police to be deployed in London. The plans foresee a total of 1,000 new armed police being in place by spring 2018.
Anti-terrorist response teams to be created around UK (The Guardian, link): "New specialist anti-terrorist response teams will be created in Birmingham, Manchester and other major cities to step up Britain’s ability to withstand attacks like those in Paris and Brussels, David Cameron has announced.
As he arrived in Washington for a nuclear security summit, hosted by Barack Obama, the prime minister said the government planned to create several teams in regions outside London that would be equipped to respond to potential terrorist attacks around the clock.
He also announced a series of other steps, including an increase of more than 1,000 in the number of armed police officers trained to operate on Britain’s streets by 2018, as well as the purchase of 40 additional armed police response vehicles."
And see: Cameron announces hundreds more armed police officers to counter terrorism threat (Herald Scotland, link): "The recruitment drive aims to have 1000 more armed police in place across England and Wales by spring 2018 with 400 ready to be deployed to cities including Manchester and Birmingham.
It includes plans to have 600 extra armed police officers in London which were announced in January.
An additional 40 armed response vehicles and teams are due to be "up and running" within the next 12 months, bringing the total number south of the border to 150. London will see its fleet doubled."
The January announcement on increasing the number of armed police in London: Met Police to get 600 more armed police to boost terror response (BBC News, link): "Six hundred extra armed officers are to be trained and patrols more than doubled to help counter the threat of a terrorist attack in London, the Metropolitan Police has announced.
It will bring the total number of armed officers in the capital to 2,800."
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