Authorised Firearms Officer
An Authorised Firearms Officer (AFO) is a British police officer who has received training and authorisation to carry and use firearms. The designation is significant because within the United Kingdom, police personnel do not routinely carry firearms. Members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, however, do routinely carry firearms due to the nature of the increased risk of armed violence. The Ministry of Defence Police, who police the UK Defence estate and personnel, and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary who guard civil nuclear energy facilities also routinely carry firearms.
In the year 2007–2008, there were 6,780 Authorised Firearms Officers and 21,181 police operations in which firearms were authorised throughout England and Wales.
AFOs are often deployed in Armed Response Vehicles (ARV).
Read more about Authorised Firearms Officer: Training, Use of Firearms Officers, Legal Status of The Use of Firearms, Firearms in Use, Metropolitan Police
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“The duties which a police officer owes to the state are of a most exacting nature. No one is compelled to choose the profession of a police officer, but having chosen it, everyone is obliged to live up to the standard of its requirements. To join in that high enterprise means the surrender of much individual freedom.”
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