Senior Ross councillor urges police to change armed cops policy
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A LEADING Liberal Democrat councillor has lodged a motion calling on Highland Council to appeal to Police Scotland to change its gun policy in the Highlands.
Black Isle councillor David Alston’s motion is supported by SNP and Labour councillors and is expected to be approved at a meeting of the full council in Inverness next week.
It calls on Scotland’s Chief Constable Sir Stephen House to scrap his police guns policy after it emerged 30 constables are routinely armed with handguns while on duty.
The motion from Councillor Alston, the leader of the Highland Council Liberal Democats, reads: "We call on Police Scotland to change its policy and, if necessary, to seek changes in the regulation governing a Standing Authority to carry arms in order to make that possible."
The motion comes after Highland MP Danny Alexander called on Sir Stephen to come to the north and explain why he authorised officers to carry handguns on duty without giving the public any say in the matter.
The chief secretary for the Treasury said politicians from across the political spectrum were against the armed policing policy and it was essential to hold a public debate.
A Standing Firearm Authority has been in place since April 2013 to allow a limited number of trained Armed Response Vehicle officers in Scotland to overtly deploy with a handgun and Taser.
The change to the style of Highland policing came to light a few weeks ago.
A total of 531 officers in Scotland are trained in the use of firearms and 275, including supervisory officers, are dedicated firearms officers.
They are deployed on a shift pattern basis.
Assistant Chief Constable Bernie Higgins said the deployment model allows officers to have a capability to respond and deal with a situation where they may unexpectedly encounter an immediate threat and where a delay in doing so would be detrimental to their own and public safety.
It means officers now no longer have to stop on their way to an incident and arm themselves, a process which can take up to 20 minutes.
"They can now go directly to a scene and provide that immediate protection, which avoids unnecessary risk to the public and unarmed police officers," he said.
