- 224 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
On 7 July 2005, just before 9 am, explosive devices detonated on London Underground trains at Liverpool Street, Edgware Road and Kings Cross stations and on a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square. Fifty-six people were killed and over 700 injured. Suicide bombing had come to Britain. Two weeks later, the capital's commuters narrowly missed disaster when four more devices failed to explode. Security in London was increased to unprecedented levels as Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair said his force faced 'its largest operational challenge since the war'. Heavily armed police officers patrolling the streets became a regular feature of television news programmes, leaving an enduring impression that unarmed policing in Britain had gone forever and with it the kindly image of the archetypal British bobby. Controversy rages over the increased use of firearms because in the public mind, the hallmark of British security has always been unarmed policing. Now, for the first time, former Head of the Metropolitan Police Firearms Unit, Mike Waldren, gives his insider account of the changes in Britain's policing, spanning over half a century and including many examples of extraordinary heroism, tragedy, controversy, comedy, intrigue and occasional farce.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- List of Plates
- Foreword by Professor P.A.J. Waddington
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1. The Good Old Days
- 2. A Firearms Training Wing
- 3. Teething Problems
- 4. Crime and Terrorism
- 5. Sieges
- 6. Teamwork
- 7. Victory and Disaster
- 8. New Rules and a Convention
- 9. A More Sensible Cartridge
- 10. Unauthorised and Unorthodox
- 11. More Working Parties
- 12. Indecision
- 13. To Encourage the Others
- 14. The Dividing Line
- 15. Into a New Century
- Notes
- Select Bibliography and Further Reading