DORSET Police is training more officers to use guns – but insists it is a long way from arming all bobbies.

The National Police Chiefs Council is considering the idea of routinely arming rural police officers.

It says that in Devon and Cornwall, armed officers can be 30-70 miles away from an incident. The Devon and Cornwall force is looking at merging with Dorset.

Chief Superintendent Glen Mayhew, commander of the operations department at the Dorset Police and Devon and Cornwall Police Alliance, said the forces were playing an active part in the consultation.

He said in a statement: “What we are now looking to do is increase our capability in responding to incidents where armed officers may be needed; this includes an uplift in the number of trained armed officers we have in the force and an increase in available armed response vehicle units.

“We will also now use these visibly armed officers to undertake foot patrols at key locations such as major shopping centres, on top of major events and key locations across the region, which we are already doing.

“This is not in reaction to any specific threat within Devon, Cornwall and Dorset. This decision is to help offer reassurance to the public, and to offer a highly-visible level of protection to our public.

“This does not mean that we are currently in, or are any closer to, a situation where 'bobbies on the beat' are armed in rural locations.

“We are not doing this, and any change in this area would be something that would need to be following an extensive, nationwide public consultation.”

Anna Harvey, chair of Dorset Police Federation – the staff association for officers – said many officers did not want to routinely carry guns but did want Tasers.

“I know we’ve had an uplift in Taser capability and I think we are now heading towards 280 staff by the end of the year to be qualified in using Tasers, which we see as a fantastic deterrent,” she said.

“The Taser training is open to all police officers in Dorset to apply for.”

She said she did not sense a demand for police to carry guns. “At the moment Dorset Police have 24-hour armed capability and they are deployable at a moment’s notice,” she said.

“The feeling is that a lot of officers don’t want to be routinely armed. It goes back to the British policing model, which is all about consent, and some officers don’t feel they want to be armed.”