Crimestoppers hotline scrapped by police

The Countryside Alliance has announced that the Crimestoppers hotline – set up “to encourage members of the shooting community and the general public to report any concerns about legally held firearms” – has been scrapped following public outcry.

The move is the result of lobbying by the Countryside Alliance, whose executive chairman Sir Barney White-Spunner met with chief constable Andy Marsh, the ACPO lead on firearms licensing earlier. The pair agreed a letter to shotgun and firearms certificate holders that explains “there is little evidence of legal firearms users being involved in terrorism”.

The letter, which is by Andy Marsh and Sir Barney White-Spunner jointly, reads:

I understand that the dedicated Crimestoppers hotline has caused concerns and anxiety amongst the shooting community, and in particular amongst certificate holders who feel that they could be targeted by those opposed to shooting. As a result of listening to those concerns we have agreed that there will no longer be a specific firearms licensing hotline number. We will continue to work with Crimestoppers, in close consultation with shooting organisations, around further campaigns on firearms licensing. However, these will only use the main Crimestoppers number.

Read the full letter here

The statement from the Countryside Alliance thanks everyone who joined their campaign to write to their MP and ask them to oppose the ACPO firearms campaign. 497 MPs received personal communications from their constituents in just two weeks!

In October we exclusively reported that police concern that members of the shooting community may be “vulnerable to criminal or terrorist groups” has prompted the Home Office to update its firearms guidance to support forces in England and Wales in their intention to start making unannounced home visits to legitimate gun owners.

Here’s the rest of our exclusive story in it’s entire form:

The policy, which is came into effective on 15 October, has been introduced ostensibly to ensure certificate holders are complying with firearms security measures — this is despite the fact that the Home Office’s own figures show that theft of guns is not a widespread concern. On average, in the past five years, annually just 0.025 per cent of the 1,837,243 legally held firearms and shotguns in England and Wales were stolen — an average of just 475 guns per year. The figures are not broken down to indicate whether a firearm was stolen from a home, military or commercial environment or whether it was stolen in transit.

Just 0.025% of 1.8million legally held firearms are stolen annually. Yet police think there's a security problem: http://t.co/wITomrjFY8

— Shooting Times (@ShootingTimes) October 13, 2014

When online news site The Register analysed figures of stolen guns quoted by Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) the results suggested that the police figures give an inflated picture of the number of actual firearms stolen. Comparing the ACPO figures to data obtained by the BBC through Freedom of Information requests, which differentiated between actual guns and items such as moderators and spare barrels, which are treated as firearms for licensing and crime recording purposes. The Register concluded that: “the figures appear to show that ACPO is over-reporting the number of losses and thefts of lethal barrelled weapons by an average of 10 per cent. If shotguns are removed from the data, ACPO’s statistics seem to record double the number of firearms stolen than is actually the case according to the detailed Home Office stats.”

Despite such low figures and little evidence of a genuine problem, a dedicated Crimestoppers hotline has also been launched “to encourage members of the shooting community and the general public to report any concerns about legally held firearms”. BASC called the hotline “unnecessary and inappropriate”. The Countryside Alliance has launched an e-campaign for shooters to call on their MP to oppose the police campaign which, it says “encourages an untrusting and vindictive attitude from your friends and neighbours”.

Chief Constable Andy Marsh, the national policing lead for firearms and explosives licensing, called on the shooting community to lend its support to the new measures, saying: “The public and especially the shooting community can greatly assist the police in gathering intelligence and protecting our communities by being vigilant around firearms licensing. The shooting community is close, and will recognise sudden behavioural changes in fellow shooters that could cause concerns. However, they may not feel like they can act and the Crimestoppers hotline empowers people to voice concerns anonymously.”

He added: “If you are concerned that guns are being kept insecurely or notice signs that shooters may be vulnerable to criminal or terrorist groups or have shown sympathy towards extremist acts, please report it.”

#gunsafety #police don’t want to catch out certificate holders. We want to ensure #firearms are stored securely for their ongoing safe use.

— National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) (@PoliceChiefs) October 13, 2014

The new Home Office guidance states: “Where it is judged necessary, based on specific intelligence in light of a particular threat, or risk of harm, the police may undertake an unannounced home visit to check the security of a certificate holder’s firearms and shotguns. It is not expected that the police will undertake an unannounced home visit at an unsocial hour unless there is a justified and specific requirement to do so on the grounds of crime prevention or public safety concerns, and the police judge that this action is both justified and proportionate.”

Importantly, shooters must understand that no new power of entry has been conferred on the police or police staff, and those undertaking a visit must provide “a clear and reasoned explanation” for doing so.

In launching the measure, Chief Constable Marsh stressed that the police’s intention is not to “catch out gun owners”. He said: “I know that the vast majority of gun owners understand their responsibility to secure firearms and in the main take this very seriously, which allows their continued lawful use for work or leisure purposes.”

BASC’s Richard Ali stated that the association backs the police in their efforts to help firearms certificate holders “maintain the excellent record of safety and security in England and Wales”. He added: “Where there is specific intelligence of threat, risk or harm then the police should act.”

The Countryside Alliance has called ACPO’s campaign to target the legitimate shooting community over security concerns “unjustified and ill-judged”. The CA’s director of campaigns, Tim Bonner, said: “This campaign is exactly the sort of knee-jerk reaction to an unrelated problem that the Government had promised to avoid. It is unjustified and ill-judged, and will serve only to waste police resources and alienate a large and law abiding section of the community.

“The public appeal for information about certificate holders through Crimestoppers will encourage malicious complaints and the link made with radicalisation and terrorism is insulting and ridiculous. We have not been made aware of a single recent incident in which a licence holder has misused a firearm in pursuit of an extremist agenda.”

https://twitter.com/CACampaigns/status/522354213943128064

This latest move follows on from the introduction last year of Operation Solitaire, a community engagement project which is, according to the police, “aimed at reducing the vulnerability of those with legitimate access to firearms, to using these weapons illegally.” The operation’s target audience includes people who have “regular interaction with holders of firearms and shotgun certificates”.

Police firearms enquiry officers and neighbourhood officers have visited shooting clubs and registered firearms dealers in recent months to highlight concerns surrounding the potential for terrorists or mass killers to exist within the shooting community.

One gun club member recently wrote in an online forum for armed services personnel that his personal experience of the Operation Solitaire initiative was: “the crappiest attempt by the plod at getting us to grass each other up as lone wolf killers”.

On 24 October, Sir Barney White Spunner, executive chairman of the CA, attended a meeting in Downing Street to discuss the new initiative. Reporting on the meeting on the CA’s website Sir Barney wrote: “It was acknowledged that there are various issues that need to be addressed and the CA and ACPO agreed that we would work closely together to resolve them. Chief Constable Andy Marsh and I will be meeting again in the very near future after which we will be writing to the shooting community to explain the way forward, which looks to be sensible and positive.”

How have people reacted to the news?

@Shot_fox @AmbushPredator @shootinguk @GazTheJourno This sneaked in under the radar didn't it! BASC knew but I never saw anything …

— Fidel Cuntstruck (@fidelcntstruck) October 13, 2014

https://twitter.com/HantsCrimestopp/status/521752682454089728

https://twitter.com/sttommore/status/522071643993038849

BASC’s advice on home visits:

The BASC is advising members to ensure their security arrangements are up to standard. The association is reminding shooters that the police are required to provide a clear and reasoned explanation to certificate holders at the time of an unannounced visit. Shooters should be left in no doubt as to why the visit is being made. The association has reiterated that the police DO NOT have an automatic statutory right of entry, but BASC recommends a sensible and co-operative approach to this type of situation.

BASC states: “It is possible that the reason for visiting may not be specifically about the certificate holder but may relate to other factors such as local rural or urban crime. There is an expectation of elementary co-operation from certificate holders following a reasonable request to check the security of your firearms.”

If shooters feel that any visit has not been undertaken properly, they should first draw this to the attention of the local force, clearly stating the reasons why they believe this to be the case. BASC has also stated that it will challenge robustly any police force which does not correctly follow the Home Office guidelines.

Follow these links to BASC’s advice to members and BASC’s advice for firearms security

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