POLICE Scotland got new tactics on armed officers right - but underestimated their impact on community relations, according to the force's inspectorate.
Chief Constable Sir Stephen House has faced fierce criticism this year over a perceived increase in the visibility of guns on Scottish streets. Now HM Inspector of Constabulary, Derek Penman, has effectively blessed such tactics but criticised the way the public was informed.
Scotland's specialist armed police officers over recent years have changed the way they carry their guns - in holsters rather than in locked boxes in their cars - and what they do when they carry them. This has meant the fewer than 300 officers who are armed were slightly more likely to be seen than in the past.
Mr Penman said such "overt carriage" was "operationally justi-fied" and added that he believed there was a role for armed officers to attend non-firearms-related incidents. This comes despite Sir Stephen recently saying police from armed response vehicles (ARVs) would only routinely be asked to deal with calls where there was a potential threat to life.
The inspector said: "The overt carriage of the side arm and Taser by ARV officers operating under a standing authority is the best and safest method of carriage and we endorse the decision of the Chief Constable on the grounds of operational effectiveness. More broadly, we consider that overt carriage for ARV duties promotes openness and transparency with the public.
"The Chief Constable has recently responded to community concerns around armed policing and we support his decision that ARV officers will only be deployed to firearms incidents or where there is a threat to life.
"However, we believe that ARV officers can make a positive contribution to local policing and should support local officers through attending appropriate non-firearms-related incidents."
Mr Penman is suggesting that - with the right public relations campaign - wider deployment of armed officers for non-lethal incidents could become more acceptable. This puts him on a collision course with Liberal Democrats and others who believe overt weapons change the basis of policing by consent.
He added: "Police Scotland has underestimated the community impact of its policy to allow ARV officers to attend non-firearms-related incidents and could have done more in addressing localised concerns."
Mr Penman's report will go before the Scottish Police Authority, the force's main civilian watchdog, this week.
The force, he said, had "not effectively communicated the impact of its policy decision to implement a national standing authority for ARV crews, nor ensured the SPA fully understood the implications".
He added: "However, we accept that much of this can be attributed to the significant pace of change around reform and the unprecedented challenge on both the Chief Constable and the SPA to transition legacy police forces into a single operational service."
Vic Emery, the SPA's chairman, said: "SPA sees the publication of this report as a helpful watershed between identifying various gaps and grey areas of the past, and looking forward to embedding the further lessons of this in improved policy consideration and decision-making in the future."
Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Higgins said: "We have already committed to reviewing our guidance to armed officers when not deployed to firearms incidents and on the types of carriage for firearms and Tasers and are also reviewing how we can improve our engagement with communities."
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