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There are occasions that require the use of firearms by Authorised Firearms Officers (AFOs) in conflict situations. This response is a well-established and necessary approach to managing conflict. Commanders and AFOs are trained to analyse and determine appropriate courses of action in the course of armed deployments.

Police officers have a positive duty to protect the public from harm – a duty of care to all involved must be the overriding consideration. Police decision-making and response is vital in such situations and thus the National Decision model (NDM) is used to assist with the decision-making process.

The Authorised Professional Practice for Armed Policing covers guidance on the appropriate use of firearms within the police force. It also acts as a basis for training police officers in matters relating to the operational use of firearms.

The also provides guidance on structural command, tactical options and operational challenges with the deployment of Authorised Firearms Officers (AFOs).

Undercover policing is a covert tactic used by the Police to obtain evidence and intelligence. It is also used to detect crime and disorder and help maintain public safety.

Undercover policing is a lawful and ethical tactic and when applied rightly can be very effective tool. In order to ensure it is kept this way, Authorised Professional Practice (APP) has been developed and used by Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) across the United Kingdom.

There is an undercover accreditation process that has been developed to provide an assessment of whether the management and governance of undercover units are effective in supporting safe, ethical and lawful undercover operations.

Undercover operatives (UCOs) are deployed as covert human intelligence sources (CHIS) in authorised investigations. There are three different types of UCOs, Undercover foundation(UCFs), Undercover advanced operatives (UCAs) AND Undercover online operatives (UCOLs). All must go through vigorous training and go through a robust selection process.

Police have a duty to respond to every incident reported in an appropriate way and in a timely manner. A critical incident (CI) is defined as:

any incident where the effectiveness of the police response is likely to have a significant impact on the confidence of the victim, their family and/or the community. An incident can be escalated to a CI when the police fail to meet the expectation of a victim/family and/or the community in responding to an incident.

Therefore critical incident management (CIM) is key within the police force. Different types of incidents can become critical, high profile, serious or homicide related. If the police do not respond in a timely manner to serious incidents it can result in loss of confidence by the public.

There are 3 stages to CIM:

1. Preparing for critical incidents – considering current management structures to ensure staff are trained effectively and resources are available

2. Managing critical incidents – identifying critical incidents early on and notified to the most appropriate person.

3. Restoring public confidence – restoring broken confidence amongst the public by community engagement, resolution and public inquiry.

Decision-making in the Police service can be very complex. Police officers most often have to make decisions in very difficult circumstances and situations and may not have all the necessary or complete information to hand. It is also very important to note that the role that police officers play and the environment where they have to make decisions can be very complicated. Police officers and police staff are sometimes required to make decisions in circumstances where those involved deliberately mislead or try to mislead them. As a result it may not always lead to the best outcome.

Therefore to create a framework that could allow officers to base their decisions on, and allow for examination of each decision and allow for some form of standardisation in decision making the National Decision Model (NDM) was created.

At the heart of the NDM, the Code of Ethics highlighted is essential for all decision making. This gives confidence for police officers to use the NDM and reduces risk. Decision makers will be supported by their organisation where it can be shown that their decision was assessed by the NDM and the circumstances at the time, even when harm has resulted as part of the decision making process.

Civil emergencies require a professional and structured response to all emergencies, this includes Police, fire and ambulance services and must meet the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. These services must have interoperable arrangements to allow for well-coordinated responses to major or complex incidents, as this would affect life.

This document helps to cover contingency planning and responses to civil emergences from the Police service.

Some major incidents may result in loss of life. Disaster victim identification (DVI) is the process of being able to identify a deceased in multiple fatality incidents. This involves combining antemortem and post-mortem examinations to make a positive identification using scientific means. This takes place at the same time an investigation is being undertaken.  DVI is an internationally accepter terms is and its principles are subject to international agreement through INTERPOL.