Phoning police, to inform them your shooting -----er no more

[Steyr]

The basic principle is it makes no difference if you report in for CAD or not.

If they have a report in from a concerned member of the public that there is a man wandering around with a sniper rifle (or an HW100 as I like to call them) then they have a duty to treat it as a firearms incident even if they know you are out and about.
Just because you are in the area doesnt mean you are the person who has been reported.
We called in a report of armed trespass when we got lit up by a red light.
As it turned out the farmer had given us clearance to shoot that evening and the other guy also called but spoke to his sister who gave him permission.
We had a chat and pointed out that we had two people out with high velocity rifles which could have resulted in an incident as the other guy was shooting solo with a gun mounted lamp. That meant when he lit us up we had a centre fire being pointed at us.
As for the rest of this old pony then instead of l8sting 5 different permissions tell them if your in doubt call me and I will tell you where I am.
They are now insisting that it is a legal requirement that we call....an error I corrected and told them the correct situation and asked them to get correct info from their FEO colleagues before stating incorrect facts.
They also insist you call when you finished. I just say we will be finishing at 3AM.........and say I wont be calling back as it can take ages to get through and it costs quite a few pennies on mobile.
I tend to use judgement on how high risk the venue is re coming across third parties and the liklihood of a false or even malicious call to the police and we have had a couple of those too.
State the requirements and stand your ground in a polite but firm manner is my view

[strebblo]

... This is not so far fetched as if you have a tracker system they'd already know or the GPS of your mobile phone will report your location to within 30 meters...

I'm thinking that you don't quite know how Geo location works. You know that's not actually true or accurate?
But in other news, did you know that they're watching you through your TV?

[lensman57]

I'm thinking that you don't quite know how Geo location works. You know that's not actually true or accurate?
But in other news, did you know that they're watching you through your TV?

All I know is when I have had a couple of breakdowns and calling any of the rescue services they seem to know exactly the location that I am calling from. Failing this I am afraid that I am not an expert in Geo locations and would be delighted to learn more if any one is willing to explain.

Regards,

A.G

[Twodoctors]

I don't shoot vermins so I have no experience in this and it sounds like you are being courteous in calling in first. However there is no system at the police end to handle this (or at least it doesn't sound like there's one) and it's logged as a new police incident every time you do, hence asking for all the details each time you call. Different call handler, different approach. Obviously the forces in questions doesn't feel they need to create a system to handle this, so your call is probably unwelcomed and creating extra workload for them.

Have you discussed this with the FEO? What's their advice?

Adrian

[Beretta303]

I'm not sure on this so if someone knows for sure, please can you confirm or correct me...

Am I correct in thinking that each time you call in to the control room they log your call as a firearms incident, which then becomes a statistic, which is then used by the policy makers when they are deciding what and how with our firearms laws ?

If so, then why are we phoning the control rooms in the misguided belief that it will help us, and help them, only to be penalised later on when the very same calls are used against us to usher in tighter gun controls ?

[Rich]

Sounds to me like something BASC could do with taking on board, trying to negotiate a consistent approach and a system that worked nationwide. This doesn't just affect airgunners as pointed out above.

I have to say our local police team here have been pretty good, and have appreciated the prior notice. As far as I know, nobody's been asked to call in at the finish.

If any public shout despite prior notice led to the same response, that sounds less than an ideal use of police time, and if that was the universal case why would they want to know start and finish times?

[warbucks]

I don't shoot vermins so I have no experience in this and it sounds like you are being courteous in calling in first. However there is no system at the police end to handle this (or at least it doesn't sound like there's one) and it's logged as a new police incident every time you do, hence asking for all the details each time you call. Different call handler, different approach. Obviously the forces in questions doesn't feel they need to create a system to handle this, so your call is probably unwelcomed and creating extra workload for them.

Have you discussed this with the FEO? What's their advice?

Adrian

Yes 2 years ago i spoke with my FEO, he (like's) you to Phone it in, the conversation sort of went "joe public see's man with gun , phone's it in, phone operator get's it all out of proportion, police helicoptor is brought in at £2,000 a flight, ect,ect", This and just being a reasonable person, and having respect for the police is why i have phoned it in when i think its one of them area's where Joe public might phone in, but no more.
What i haven't mentioned is the night in question, my driver was a retired cop, he was shaking his head and laughing at me as i was one the phone.
When id finished on the phone, i said to him "what do you think to that then" he said " i dont know why you bother, i dont phone any of mine in, you just making problem's for yourself.

In all fairness a lot of shooters are just going to one permission, so the system can deal with this better, i'll often do a round trip with say 10 different permission's to make a night of it, their system just isnt organised for this, and having spoken the my local firearm's licensing about this, they carn't/wont,try alter the current system.

Dave (warbucks)

[richierich]

I always phone my shoots in beforehand to Durham Constabulary. I had the pleasure of meeting the local bobby that is responsible for the area in which i shoot, and he said it's great that i do this as if it's on the bulletin board when joe public calls in to say they've seen someone with a gun on the golfcourse, they'll call me to check i'm still there, and if i've noticed anyone else (which has happened before). They will send the local bobby to meet with me first if i'm still on the course when an incident is phoned in (to make sure all checks out), and if i'm not there, they deal with it appropriately as with any other firearms related incident.

I do this as it seems to work up here (that and there's a public footpath through the course), but then, other police force areas have their own way of dealing with your courteous calls