Aside from the day-to-day policing, the UK Police Force also tackles special tasks that require sophisticated skills in handling technology, weapons, investigation and crime policing. You’ll be surprised at how much the Police is involved in national matters since the most important of all in public service is protecting the United Kingdom’s interests. There is quite a number of special operation and elite units in the UK Police. To know more about them, here’s a brief overview of each.
CO19 Police Firearms Unit
Also known as London’s SWAT unit, this is MET’s specialist firearms unit for highly skilled policemen and women. A regular police officer in the UK isn’t allowed to carry firearms in public unless they belong to the Firearms Unit. They are capable of using a wide variety of lethal and non-lethal weapons, including sub machine guns and tazers. Officers in this unit are called for whenever there are gun crimes and terrorism in the capital. The Police Firearms Unit is divided into two: the Specialist Firearms Unit (SFO) and Armed Response Vehicle (ARV).
SO14 Royalty Protection Branch
This unit is composed of armed bodyguards for the Royal Family. The Royal Family is the most important people in all of United Kingdom. They need to be protected 24/7 with highly trained professionals that can ensure the most advance and effective performance at all times. SO14 is divided into branches: Royalty Protection Squad, Special Escort Group and Diplomatic Protection Group.
SO15 Counter Terrorism Command
This unit is entitled to protect the country’s political and national matters in terms of threat and subversion. Recently it has merged with SO13 Anti-Terrorist Branch and became SO15. This unit’s main responsibilities are to bring to justice to those engaged in terrorism, domestic extremism and related offences and to provide a proactive and reactive response to terrorism, domestic extremism and related offences, including the prevention and disruption of such activity. All in all, SO15 aims to provide all of UK the safety and protection of not being invaded by terror attacks in any other way.
SO18 Aviation Security
Aside from having the dedicated and noble services of the Royal Air Force, the UK Police also has a unit on aviation security. The unit is responsible for providing law enforcement and security for both Heathrow and London City airports. This unit is also involved in some of the missions in SO15 whereas they are the ones responsible for anything that involves aviation and UK’s aerial premises.
Civil Nuclear Constabulary
In charge of guarding UK’s nuclear sites, the CNC is responsible in monitoring and securing power stations, processing and storage plants as well as the shipments of nuclear materials. CNC officers are highly trained as shipments usually involve external trades that may cause as the way to let terrorism enter in the country. Usually they are heavily armed and often come into missions in groups in order to secure search and investigative operations.
