No wonder armed police are quitting the deck is now stacked against them

MOST Londoners probably take the capital's armed police for granted when they see them protecting buildings, railway stations and other key locations, unless it's in the immediate aftermath of a terrorist attack.

- Martin Bentham

That's important enough, but with their tasks extending well beyond that to tackling dangerous organised criminals, armed gang members and other potentially lethal threats, the revelation that the Met saw a drop of more than 250 in the number of its officers prepared to carry guns to protect the public in the nine months to the end of December is troubling.

One of the principal causes of the fall, which equates to 10 per cent of the force's firearms contingent, is the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service to charge a Met firearms officer with murder over the fatal shooting of Chris Kaba in Streatham Hill in September 2022, after intelligence linked the car he was in to a previous firearms incident.

The precise details of what happened will not become clear until the officer goes on trial and could not be discussed for legal reasons even if they were known. It will be for the jury to decide.