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The Force Firearms Unit (better known by its Specialist Operations designation SO19) is the department of the London Metropolitan Police which provides firearms-related support to the generally unarmed force. It could be considered London's equivalent to the SWAT units in the United States. SO19 are sometimes called the "Blue Berets", since they used to wear them, although now they are more likely to wear baseball caps. St. ...
Metropolitan Police redirects here. ...
SWAT officers SWAT (an acronym for Special Weapons and Tactics; originally Special Weapons Attack Team) is a specialized paramilitary police unit in major United States city police departments, which is trained to perform dangerous operations. ...
Black beret A beret (UK: , US: ; IPA) is a soft round cap with a flat crown which is worn by both men and women. ...
A baseball cap worn with the bill at the front, shading the eyes A baseball cap is a type of soft cap with a long, stiffened and curved peak and it is worn by men, women and children. ...
History
The Firearms Wing was established in December 1966 as part of the Civil Defence and Communications Branch (D6, later D11) following the murder of three officers in the Massacre of Braybrook Street. It originally consisted of ten officers who were trained by British Army instructors and then themselves trained Authorised Firearms Officers (AFOs) throughout the force. 1966 was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar) // Events January January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. ...
The Massacre of Braybrook Street was, excepting terrorist attacks, the worst mass murder of police officers in British history. ...
The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. ...
The introduction of this article does not provide enough context for readers unfamiliar with the subject. ...
In the mid-1980s, as a result of several tragic mistakes by local AFOs, the operational role of D11 began to increase dramatically. Prior to this, the D11 teams, made up of instructors, would normally only be deployed at well-established sieges. Unable to keep up with the increased work load, non-instructors, known as Level 2 Officers, were selected and used to deal with pre-planned and response operations not involving hostages or suspects with exceptional firepower. // Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 60s and 70s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ...
For the Boston area punk band see Siege (band). ...
The Level 1 teams made up of instructors dealt, in theory, with more serious incidents. By this time, the unit had undergone a name change and had become PT17 (the PT standing for "Personnel and Training"). By 1991, the two teams had merged into their current format and were known as Special Firearms Operations Teams (SFOs). At the same time, the Armed Response Vehicle Teams (ARVs) were created to deal with response calls round the clock. The department now, for the first time, came under the control of Operations and became SO19 (the SO standing for "Specialist Operations"). 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Armed Response Vehicles (ARVs) are the British polices solution to combating armed criminal activity. ...
Current role The department maintains its training role and is still responsible for training the Met's 3,000 AFOs. These include SO12 (Special Branch), SO14 (Royalty Protection), SO16 (Diplomatic Protection Group), SO18 (Airports; policing London Heathrow Airport and London City Airport), SCD7(5) (Flying Squad), SCD11 (Surveillance), the Belmarsh High Security Court Team, and some Territorial Support Group (TSG) officers. Special Branch is the arm of the British, Irish and many Commonwealth police forces that deals with national security matters. ...
See Royalty and Diplomatic Protection Department. ...
The Diplomatic Protection Group (the DPG or SO16 of the Metropolitan Police) provides protection and support to Members of the Diplomatic Community and members of HM Government. ...
London Heathrow Airport (IATA: LHR, ICAO: EGLL), often referred to simply as Heathrow, is the United Kingdoms busiest and best-connected airport. ...
Approaching London City Airport in February 2000 London City Airport (IATA: LCY, ICAO: EGLC) is a single-runway STOLPORT situated in the London Borough of Newham in East London and developed by the private engineering company Mowlem in 1986/87. ...
(Other meanings: a union flying squad is a subset of a labor union) The Flying Squad is a branch of Londons Metropolitan Police force. ...
HM Prison Belmarsh is a high security prison in London, England. ...
The ARVs now deal with thousands of armed calls a year, ranging from children with air rifles to serious armed incidents. In their first year of operation they were deployed actively 132 times; in 2001, that number rose to 1441, and in 2002 to 2490. However they also attend many more false alarms or situations where use of weapons is not required - a total of 13,394 calls in 2002. Air guns are weapons that propel a bullet using compressed air or another gas, possibly liquefied. ...
2001: A Space Odyssey. ...
2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The smaller and more highly trained SFO teams deal with nearly 1,000 operations a year. The additional training of SFOs includes the use of a wider range of weaponary including shotguns, and their additional firearms include Colt M4 and Heckler & Koch G36 carbines, and also CS gas and stun grenades. SFOs are trained in "Dynamic entry", involving abseiling, the use of ladders, and explosive charges to rapidly gain entry to buildings. Full body armour is available to them, including nuclear, biological and chemical protective clothing. Remington pump-action shotgun held by a Florida Highway Patrol cadet shotgun, see: Shotgun (disambiguation). ...
Rampant Colt - The original logo of Colts Firearms Colts Manufacturing Company is a firearms manufacturer founded in Hartford, Connecticut in 1847 by Samuel Colt in order to produce revolvers, which Colt held the patent on, during the Mexican-American War. ...
Caliber: 5. ...
Heckler und Koch GmbH (H&K) is a German weapons manufacturing company famous for various series of small firearms, notably the MP5 submachine gun, the MP7 personal defense weapon and the G3 and G36 assault rifles. ...
H&K G36 The Heckler und Koch Gewehr Model 36 (company designation G36, Bundeswehr designation ) is a modular weapon system designed in West Germany in the 1980s and 1990s. ...
A carbine is a firearm, similar to but shorter than an ordinary rifle or musket in barrel and stock. ...
chemical structure of CS gas CS gas (commonly called tear gas), or ortho-chloro-benzal malonitrile, is a usually non-lethal riot control agent. ...
A hand grenade is a hand-held bomb, made to be thrown by a soldier. ...
In British English, abseiling (from the German abseilen, to rope down) is the process of descending on a fixed rope. ...
This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ...
A bulletproof vest – also called body armour (U.S. body armor) – is an article of protective clothing that works as a form of armour to minimize injury from being hit by a fired bullet. ...
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The operations SFOs perform range from pre-planned operations, to arrests of armed criminals and terrorists, to serving of high risk warrants, hostage rescue and security operations.
The SFO teams are better equipped and trained than many national counter-terrorist teams and are well respected within the international tactical community for their varied and constant operational experience.
Recently, SO19 has changed its name to CO19 (Central Operations)
See also The British police are a group of similar but independent police services which operate in the United Kingdom. ...
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