Armed Dorset Police officers opened fire once since 2008

New figures show Dorset Police were called to fewer overall incidents in the year to March 2023.

It comes amid an increase in the number of armed callouts across England and Wales.

In the year to March 2023, Dorset Police sent armed officers to 215 operations, fewer than the year before when there were 245.

Recent examples include an emergency response in Boscombe when officers raced to Watkin Road after a man reportedly attacked a woman before leaving with a child.

Armed police and officers in Watkin Road, Boscombe, in July. (Image: Newsquest)

As reported by the Echo in August 2018, a man was accidentally shot with a Glock pistol during a planned armed police operation in Castle Lane West, Bournemouth. 

It is understood to have been the only time armed officers fired a weapon during an operation since 2008.

The Covid pandemic had a significant impact on crime across the country, with a drop in the number of reported armed incidents.

In the year to March 2020, the last full year before lockdown was imposed, there were 324 operations in Dorset.

Government figures also show Dorset Police has not trained more officers to use firearms.

Last year there were 67 trained firearms officers, the same as the year before.

Armed police in Bournemouth in July 2019

Nationally there were a total of 6,651 armed officers as of March this year, a slight drop from 6,677 the year before.

Chief Constable Simon Chesterman, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for armed policing, said: “A mark of the quality of training that armed officers receive is how infrequently they have to use their weapons, and it is a testament to the professionalism of our armed officers that only 0.05 per cent of armed deployments end with a firearm actually being discharged.”

A spokesperson for the Home Office said it was hard to make direct comparisons with rates during the pandemic, but the number of incidents where firearms were intentionally discharged “remains very low”.

They added: “Deadly force continues to be used very rarely by police in this country. This is testament to the training, skill and judgement of firearms officers and commanders.”