FIREARMS officers responded to hundreds of incidents in South Yorkshire last year, new figures show.
Figures from the Home Office show South Yorkshire Police deployed these officers in 576 operations in the year to March, down from 582 the year before.
Officers have been called to 2,979 incidents in the past five years – many of which were in Barnsley.
The figures also show there were 133 police officers trained to use firearms in South Yorkshire, broadly unchanged from the year before.
Despite this, firearms were ‘intentionally discharged’ at a person just twice in 2023-24, compared to ten times a year earlier.
Dr Peter Squires, of the GCN, said the fall in the number of deployments ‘reflects a welcome fall in the frequency of incidents requiring police armed attendance’.
He added that falling rates support the argument that containing the proliferation of firearms, there is less need for armed policing.
