A senior officer has stated that Firearm officers can get to a terrorist attack in the Bullring or New Street Station within two minutes.
Chief Inspector Daniel Delaney, Head of the Firearms Unit said: “They’ll be a vehicle within a quarter of a mile, they’ll be a vehicle within a couple of minutes of response. So I can confidently say that we constantly move our vehicles around, we change our intelligence every day. We deploy them as effectively as possible to the threat at the time, but our key places, crowded places where there are a lot of people around, you’re talking minutes, at any time 24/7.”
After the massacre in Paris and Brussels, West Midlands Police has publicized that officers want to retrain and join the firearms unit.
The Paris and Brussels attacks stimulated a reconsideration of police urgencies, many officers volunteering for training.
In April, it was revealed that the Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini had photographs of the recently refurbished Birmingham New Street Station alongside photos of Bullring and Aston Villa’s football ground stored in his mobile phone.
These images together with stored contacts were recuperated after a forensic investigation of the suspect’s phone.
Senior officers have doubled the amount of firearm officers they have available to make sure that shoppers and travellers can be reached in case of an attack.
West Midlands Police Chief Constable Dave Thompson said: “I am very committed that British policing has to and will remain a non-armed service. It’s very important because it’s the style of policing we’ve got. Terrorism shouldn’t interfere with that, it’s vital we build good links with the community. I think we’ve still got a relatively modest amount of armed officers, I don’t think it will change what’s taking place either in terms of criminals or terrorists and it does improve our ability to respond.”
