Armed Response Vehicle

Armed Response Vehicles (ARVs) is a type of Police vehicle deployed and crewed by the Force Firearms Units of all British Police, Territorial forces. Including London's Metropolitan Police Services CO19 that respond to armed criminal activity, an Armed Response Vehicle is specifically designed and equipped to transport armed officers to the scene of a firearms incident, ARVs were introduced to make a firearms capability avaliable to the British police, due to the fact that the majority of the forces are unarmed. ARV crews are typically teams of two (or, in London, three), and are responsible for patrolling specific areas. ARVs are crewed by three members within London, having a navigator, a specially trained driver, and an observer.

Introduction of ARVs

ARVs were originally modelled on the Instant Response Cars introduced by West Yorkshire Police in 1976, they were first introduced in London in 1991, when 132 armed deployments were made. During 1992 and 1993 county forces outside of London, in England and Wales introduced ARVs.

Use of firearms within the British Police

Types of vehicle in service

ARVs are typically large high performance vehicles such as saloon cars, people carriers or four wheel drives. The Volvo T5 estate is a favourite in many county forces, although the London Metropolitan Police use BMW 530iD's. The crew of a county force ARV consists of a driver, responsible for getting to the scene quickly and safely, and a navigator, whose job is to navigate, use the radio and perform other non-driving tasks. In London, a third officer is carried having the responsibility of observer, also responsible for navigation, liaising at the scene with local police and requesting more AFOs if needed. In some forces as many as five or six Specialist Firearms Officers are carried in larger Armed Intervention Units.

Forces with large Motorways to police, have formed a Road Policing Unit. Due to many offenders commonly trying to escape by the use of the motorways, some forces have combined both armed response and roads policing, creating "Traffic ARVs". These are especially useful because the Traffic ARV driver is authorised to engage in high speed pursuit. Due to firearms operations being less frequent than other crime, when not required for incidents involving firearms, officers perform that of an unarmed roads policing unit

ARV Drivers will be at least an 'advanced' level, meaning that they will have undergone a driving course at their force's driver training centre, and may have completed further training.

Equipment

ARVs are known to include:

* Hand held Searchlight.
* Fire Extinguisher.
* Stinger (Spike strip for stopping cars safely, through the slow deflation of tyres).
* Ballistic/conventional First aid kit.
* Brush/broom etc for clearing roads after accidents.
* On board Radio set.
* Incident Data Recorder, (Commonly known as a "black box").
* MOE (Method of Entry) equipment, such as an Enforcer, battering ram, Crowbar or Sledgehammer.
* ARV Firearms
** German Heckler & Koch MP5 or G36 (Semi-automatic carbine)
** Austrian Glock 17 or Sig Sauer P226 (pistol)
** German Heckler & Koch 69 "Baton Gun" (fires Rubber projectile)
** American Taser International X26 (Stun gun)
** German Heckler & Koch MP7 (Semi-automatic Personal defence weapon, Ministry of Defence Police only)
* Crew
** Advanced Driver
** Observer - (Outside of London, the roles of observer and navigator are combined)
** Navigator

References

* [http://www.met.police.uk/co19/ Metropolitan Police Specialist Firearms Command]
* [http://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/units_and_departments/operations/rpu/armed_response.aspx Avon and Somerset Police armed response]
* [http://www.strathclyde.police.uk/index.asp?locID=632&docID=-1 Strathclyde police New fleet unveiled]
* [http://www.lancashire.police.uk/index.php?id=1212 Lancashire Constabulary]
* [http://www.acpo.police.uk/asp/news/PRDisplay.asp?PR_GUID=%7B661910A9-E2BC-4ECE-BBB3-7AE87F288C4D%7D Association of Chief Police Officers guidelines, of firearm use.]