Guernsey Police armed responses increase
Armed officers are being deployed more often to ensure members of the public are protected, according to the chief of Guernsey Police.
In 2011 the firearms unit was dispatched 39 times, up from 10 times the year before and five in 2009.
Some of those deployments were for events such as the Royal visit, but 26 were in response to emergency calls.
Patrick Rice said: "There are some underlying social issues that do impact how the police have to respond."
The majority of emergency callouts were in response to threats or injury caused by an edged weapon, such as a knife, and seven deployments were made after firearms threats.