The Judgement Test
| 20:15 UK time, Thursday, 12 March 2009
Our reporter, Stephen Chittenden, has been given privileged access to CO19, the firearms unit of London's Metropolitan Police.
You can hear his report on Friday's Breakfast programme and watch his video below.
Stephen writes:
"These are the men and women who have been trained to carry and if necessary use weapons on the capital's streets.
Some patrol in Armed Response Vehicles. A minority go on to become Specialist Firearms Officers, the elite group who were involved in hunting and capturing the 21/7 failed suicide bombers.
I joined them at their purpose-built training centre in Kent - a complex of indoor and outdoor shooting ranges, plus a townscape where armed training takes place.
At the centre, I took the Judgement Test, which all armed officers must pass.
I stood before a simulator screen armed with a Glock laser-firing handgun while an all too realistic scenario unfolded before me. A disgruntled former employee had returned to his office with a gun and I had to decide how to react.
This is nothing like a video game. It is terrifying partly because of the sounds and scenes around you, but also because you have no idea what is going to happen.
See how I got on in this video:
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The Metropolitan Police faced enormous scrutiny after the shooting dead of Jean Charles De Menezes at Stockwell Tube Station. The criticism goes on as many people still struggle to understand why an unarmed man, wrongly identified, was shot dead by the police.
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this appeared to me as a pr guff, one that required us to 'understand' the nature of the murder of de menezes.
however the fact is these men had trained and so clearly were deemed competent enough to handle the circumstances that arose at that time.
the reporter clearly was not trained nor deemed competent enough to engage in the work of the CO19 so his experience cannot be stretched to those who are thought to be able to handle stressful environments and issues.
it is the view of some that de menezes was a political decision, except the wrong man had been killed. it was meant to be a 'message' to those who might choose an act of terrorism as a consequence of our war in iraq and elsewhere. the recent inquiry largely indicated the nature of the killing and subsequent cover up.
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