Special Escort Group (Metropolitan Police)

The Special Escort Group (SEG) is a department within the Royalty and Specialist Protection (RaSP) of the Metropolitan Police Service. Formed in 1952,[1] the SEG provides mobile armed protection to members of the Royal family and Government ministers. In addition they carry out armed vehicle escorts of high risk (category A) prisoners and high value loads.

Role

The department supports the wider protection command of RaSP, typically operating within the London area. They provide armed motorcycle escorts for members of the royal family, protected members of the Government, visiting royals, heads of state and other visiting dignitaries. It also provides armed vehicle escorts for valuable, hazardous and protected loads and high risk prisoners.

This specialist unit of the Metropolitan Police consists of officers with a range of skills and operational experience from various policing backgrounds. One motorcyclist (lead bike) positions themselves in front of the escort, controlling the precise pace, position, speed and timing of the escort, whilst the others forge ahead, dealing with traffic situations and advising the lead bike of the safest path through the traffic they are controlling. SEG officers use whistles rather than sirens. This reduces the level of noise that precedes an escort and softens the environmental impact on the escorted person and general public.

Equipment

Officers from the SEG are among the few police motorcyclists in the UK that carry firearms openly whilst riding. All SEG officers are highly trained in vehicle and firearms tactics. These include - advanced car driving, advanced motorcycle riding, anti-hijack driving, armoured car driving and firearms tactics.

The SEG use a wide range of marked and unmarked vehicles which include BMW motorcycles, BMW 5 Series cars and Range Rovers.

All officers are Authorised Firearms Officer and routinely carry Austrian Glock 17s and German Heckler & Koch MP5. Officers are also trained to carry Taser and the Heckler & Koch G36.

List of Motorcycles

The following is a list of the motorcycles used by the SEG[2]

Make Model Introduced
Triumph Speed Twin 5T 1952
Triumph Thunderbird 6T 1959
Triumph TR6 Trophy 1967
BMW R80/7 1980
BMW K100 1990
BMW R1100 & R1150RS 1997
Honda VFR1200 2012
BMW R1200 2018

References
  • "Protection Command". Metropolitan Police Service. Retrieved September 13, 2014.
  1. Jagger, Chris (2017). Escorting the Monarch. Barnsley: Pen & Sword History. p. 1. ISBN 1526720418.
  2. Jagger, Chris (2017). Escorting the Monarch. Barnsley: Pen & Sword History. p. 151. ISBN 1526720418.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.