Talk:Specialist Firearms Command

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Contents 1 'Dzm' police 2 Berets 3 Change of name - now CO19 4 Glock 5 "The SFO teams are better equipped and trained than many national counter-terrorist teams" 6 Equipment Used 7 ARV Number of deployed times

[edit] 'Dzm' police

Any idea what this is stands for? saw it on an armored truck, on a picture of the arrest of suspected bombers 29 jul 05. Truck is dark blue, back is completely rectangle, front was obscured but looks similar to ford F150 Adidas 15:12, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

The DZM is the ID code for the vehicle. All Met Police vehicles have them on the roof (for helicopters) and recent ones have them on both sides of the vehicles, usually towards the rear. They are usually 3 letters, though some are only 2. A very small number of vehicles will have a number instead of a letter code on the roof and sides. The truck is called a Jenkel. It is,obviously, armoured and used by firearms units for certain tasks. Sapient

Thank you very much Sapient! Adidas 15:33, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Berets

While the article implies the berets are no longer worn, there was a photo published in Metro on 2005-08-02 that showed two armed officers at Liverpool St Station, both wearing berets and dark blue shirts. I've seen a different photo recently of officers wearing berets, although I can't find any online. Zoganes 22:54, August 5, 2005 (UTC)

The clue is that this was at Liverpool St Station. The officers were from the City of London Police firearms unit, not the Metropolitan Police. --Sapient 06:38, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Change of name - now CO19

The Met Firearms Unit has moved from Specialist Operations (SO) to Central Operations (CO) and is now called CO19. This has not been a popular move, apparently... It will take a while for this to be established so I suggest we leave this page as SO19 for the moment. --Sapient 06:38, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

In the media senior officers are now referring to it as CO19 and the new name has been appearing in the newspapers. I've updated the article accordingly and will move it with appropriate redirects. The official websites are out of date, but if you don't believe me, have a look here, or here. Sapient 14:53, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Glock

I think the Glock model used is the 17 as the 22 is not in 9mm ? Can someone please clear this up ?? --139.168.204.172 09:04, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "The SFO teams are better equipped and trained than many national counter-terrorist teams"

Surely a bit biased? April 2007

May be true, but needs corroboration. Nick Cooper 09:08, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Exhibit B:

The ARV officers are all issued with the Glock 17 self-loading pistol in addition to an MP5 or an X26 Taser, one of our [emphasis added] current less-lethal options... In the 2006/07 financial year, the TST teams undertook over 280 deployments.

Sounds like an armed police officer has been writing about this (use of 1st person, exact details). Does this not suggest a conflict of interest when combined with the statement above? Naturally an AFO would be comfortable thinking that he was better equipped and trained than (for example) GSG-9,the SAS, Delta Force and other special ops units. Editus Reloaded 18:20, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Posted some of that section from a freedom of information act release infront of me. Will ammend. Caffine Junky

No one can make this wild sentance up without being in every single police counter terrorist unit in the world. Because if you havent how do you know one is better than the other if you havent been in it?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Police,Mad,Jack (talk • contribs) 13:21, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Equipment Used

The guns are covered, but what about other equipment? For example, does anyone know what sort of body armour they use?

[edit] ARV Number of deployed times

Under the ARV section it says "In their first year, they were actively deployed on 132 occasions. In 2006, they deployed 2,232 times in response to 11,725 calls to spontaneous firearms incidents." 2,232 seems rather high for 1 year in 1 city! This would make more sense if it was 2,232 times in total since 1991 (their first year) since it would mean roughly 150 per year. Since there is no source quoted for this statistic, I can't check whether it's true or just a typing misunderstanding. I recommend it be changed or removed completely. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ninj4 (talk • contribs) 13:52, 18 September 2007

The relevant CO19 page states that ARVs were first used in 1991, and that:

"The workload of these ARV's has increased dramatically since their inception. In their first year they were actively deployed on 132 occasions. In 1999, they deployed 1,440 times. 2000 this figure was 1,441. In 2001 it was 1,058 and 2002 2,490 times."

The figure of 2,232 in 2006 does not, therefore, seem out of step. Nick Cooper 17:55, 18 September 2007 (UTC)