A serving police firearms officer has praised Surrey Police’s crime commissioner for bringing to light how unequipped officers on the street are against “active shooters with AK47s” following the tragedies of the Paris attacks several weeks ago.

Kevin Hurley has spoken out about the plight of police officers who are “almost at the point where they can’t cope” and gangs that are “wising up” to the effect of budget cuts on police work.

In an anonymous letter sent to Mr Hurley, which he posted on his Twitter profile, the officer said “it is good to highlight this especially as in general there is an over confidence in our ability and an old fashioned view of how to face terrorists with high powered automatic weapons”.

The officer argued higher-powered weapons were needed for the forces, saying “you have to be more aggressive to begin with to take control and get the advantage”.

The officer added that if he was to move from his “specialist team” he would be given “a smaller calibre single shot weapon with an apthetic number of rounds, similar to what your ARV teams are equipped with”, which he highlights as not “logical”.

He adds: “My wife thinks I will get in trouble highlighting the above.”

The letter finishes telling Mr Hurley to keep up the good work, adding “it is vital we change the old fashioned firearms culture within the police force to give us a fighting chance when the worst happens.”

On receiving the officer’s letter, Mr Hurley tweeted: “Police weapons and terrorists. I am getting many such letters/tweets/emails from armed police officers.”

 


 

Last week police narrowly missed a £25m cut to their budget in Chancellor George Osbourne’s autumn spending review, which Mr Hurley said led to a “a great sigh of relief”.

He said: “Following the atrocities in Paris and the consequent need for increased security all over Europe, it would have been irresponsible to reduce the number of officers in the community who are not only the eyes and ears of counter terrorism policing, but invariably first on the scene when something terrible happens.”

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