The island’s Chief Constable has defended the use of armed police amid concerns they are overused.

There has been criticism on social media over the number of times armed units have been called out to incidents in the last couple of years.

But Isle of Man Constabulary’s top officer Russ Foster told the Constitutional and Legal Affairs and Justice Committee this week those officers have saved a number of lives.

When asked about the deployment of armed officers, he said: ‘We have fewer trained armed officers than we did when I started on April 1, 2023.

‘All that's happened is they have been repositioned to be more forward facing, to be able to respond to safeguard the public and furthermore, provide a safe system of work for our officers.

‘There has been a number of incidents where those officers have been deployed and they have saved people's lives. In addition to that, they have also detained individuals who I have no doubt would have gone on to inflict further harm on the public.

‘Historically, it would take 48 minutes to be able to scramble armed officers to an incident but it is much, much quicker now.

‘I've seen the rhetoric on social media saying “we don't want it here”, and this, that and the other.’

But Mr Foster says he has carefully considered when armed police should be deployed.

He explained: ‘We have considering the number of people who have firearms certificates in the island. Just this week [during the weapons amnesty], one individual has surrendered in excess of 100 weapons. They were a firearms dealer.

‘The combination of the number of firearms in this island per head of population, I think, outweighs anywhere in the UK.

‘What I'd also say is per head of population, we appear to have a significant number of people who are suffering from mental health issues.

‘We've deployed our armed officers to people in crisis with weapons, including firearms threatening to take their own life.

‘Historically this constabulary has deployed unarmed officers to those sorts of incidents which is wholly inappropriate and we're certainly not safeguarding our staff.

‘So I know there's been some politicians who have been quite critical and members of the public who have been extremely critical of this saying “the Chief Constable bringing his big city ways to the Isle of Man”.

‘But I can assure you, we are in a much safer place than where we were before. We need that capability, and it needs to be forward facing to protect the public. And I absolutely 100% think that was the right decision.’

Mr Foster also believes the regulations around firearms ownership in the island needs to change.

He said: ‘We need more reforms around the issuing of firearm certificates with serial numbers, with how many weapons, their purpose and also support from a GP to say that this individual is fit to be able to hold a regulated weapon certificate or a shotgun certificate.’