Authorised firearm officers of BAME background
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.038008
I note you seek access to the following information:
- How many Metropolitan Police Officers who are authorised firearms officers are of black and minority backgrounds?
- How many MPS Police Officers of BAME background fail Taser training, and Firearms training in comparison to their peers?
- Finally what age of MPS BAME officers are likely to be successful in the process of becoming an AFO?
I would like to have information in relation to this as far back as possible if you are unable to revert back to as far as 2014 to current date please?
Clarification - Question Three (3) as follows:
3. Have you got the age of officers recorded who apply for AFO roles and are successful/unsuccessful please?
In addition to Black and Minority Ethnic ethnic group, it would be useful to know what age individuals are, and as far back as 2014, or as far as you can. If you have no ages recorded, the first two questions will suffice.
Decision
I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.
Please find below information pursuant to your request above.
Q1 - How many Metropolitan Police Officers who are authorised firearms officers are of black and minority backgrounds?
Please find the following chart showing the BAME figures requested.
| End of Fiscal Year as of 31 March | Total MPS BAME AFOs | Total MPS deployable AFOs |
| 2014 | 140 | 2155 |
| 2015 | 123 | 2122 |
| 2016 | 144 | 2139 |
| 2017 | 158 | 2342 |
| 2018 | 181 | 2520 |
| 2019 | 217 | 2623 |
| 2020 | 228 | 2504 |
| 2021 | 164 | 2469* |
| 2022 | 202 | 2415* |
| 2023 | 102 | 2381** |
| 2024 | 232 | 2264* |
* No BAME data provided by RaSP
** No BAME data provided by PaDP & RaSP
** No BAME data provided by PaDP & RaSP
Dataset Caveat:
Please note the qualifiers on years 2021 to 2024 as BAME data is not available for Royalty and Specialist Protection (RaSP) for these years and is not available for Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection (PaDP) in the 2023 figures.
In the chart the Authorised Firearms Officers (AFO) designation includes all deployable MPS firearms officers including role profiles of Counter Terrorist Specialist Firearms Officer (CTSFO), Armed Response Vehicle (ARV), ASO, NFI & PO.
Source: MO19 APG deployable AFO stats 2014-2024.
Q2 - How many MPS Police Officers of BAME background fail Taser training, and Firearms training in comparison to their peers?
Taser
Our data doesn’t go back to 2014 unfortunately but since April 2021 the MPS can confirm that:
- Officers who have self-reported their ethnicity as white have a total pass rate of 93.62% across all Taser courses.
- Officers of other ethnicities (all those who self-reported ethnicity as other than white) have a total pass rate of 93.67% across all Taser courses.
Firearms
ALL FIREARMS COURSES
COURSE DATA - 2019/20
COURSE DATA - 2019/20
| TOTAL PASS RATE % | NON BAME PASS RATE % | BAME PASS RATE % |
| 79.8 | 80.87 | 71.68 |
COURSE DATA - 2020/21
| TOTAL PASS RATE % | NON BAME PASS RATE % | BAME PASS RATE % |
| 85.61 | 86.46 | 77.95 |
COURSE DATA - 2021/22
| TOTAL PASS RATE % | NON BAME PASS RATE % | BAME PASS RATE % |
| 86.56 | 87.81 | 78.53 |
COURSE DATA - 2022/23
| TOTAL PASS RATE % | NON BAME PASS RATE % | BAME PASS RATE % |
| 83.93 | 85.23 | 74.53 |
COURSE DATA - 2023/24
| TOTAL PASS RATE % | NON BAME PASS RATE % | BAME PASS RATE % |
| 86.93 | 88.44 | 76.88 |
Q3 - Have you got the age of officers recorded who apply for AFO roles and are successful/unsuccessful please?
In addition to Black and Minority Ethnic ethnic group, it would be useful to know what age individuals are, and as far back as 2014, or as far as you can. If you have no ages recorded, the first two questions will suffice.
The information you have requested is not collated and is not held. The MPS does not keep any records of student ages.