I read with interest the letter ‘Armed response missed the mark’ from David E Harris (Your Say, January 8).

A look at the Echo’s website suggests that Mr Harris is out of step with the thinking of quite a few contributors, including, it seems, the man actually stopped in the operation, who described the police as doing their job well.

I am not sure if Mr Harris actually saw the police operation first hand but his account does not seem to ring true with other accounts. As point of accuracy I would add that police firearms are not ‘automatic weapons’.

Of course it was New Year’s Eve, but contrary to Mr Harris’s suggestion, the emergency call made to us was not to somebody in fancy dress brandishing a replica gun.

In fact the gun had not been ‘brandished’ at all, nor was it during the evening when most of the revelling takes place.

Weighing up the concerns that had been sufficient for us to be called, our force control room inspector decided that armed officers should be sent in order to establish the facts, in case the public needed protecting from someone with a real gun.

Mr Harris might think we should gamble with whether we can protect the public, by taking the chance that the gun is not real and sending unarmed officers when armed ones are readily available, but I do not.

I do not expect my control room inspectors to do so either.

And I trust my armed officers not to overreact when they attend – it is quite clear by the accounts from the scene that they did not.

I am also pleased to advise Mr Harris that our armed officers, when not needing to be deployed in that capacity, patrol just as any other officer does.

They do not sit around “a touch bored” hoping to be called to something they can ‘terrify and quell’.

They have lives to lead, protecting the lives of others, whether it requires being armed or not.

Adrian Whiting, Assistant Chief Constable, Dorset Police,