Firearms Licensing Manager
Role Purpose
Responsible for making fair and transparent decisions regarding the grant, renewal and variation of shotgun certificates and firearms licences and for the management of the Firearms Licensing Unit.
Key Accountabilities
• Plan and develop the work of the Firearms Licensing Unit to enhance community safety through professional risk management decisions, efficient customer service, and engaging with stakeholders to ensure firearms are used responsibility and within the law.
• Monitor and manage the performance of a Firearms Licensing Unit, devising and implementing effective strategies to identify issues and improve team/individual performance to ensure adherence to professional standards and contribute to the achievement of objectives.
• Evaluate recommendations made by Firearms Enquiry Officers as to the grant, refusal or revocation of shotgun and firearm certificates to ensure well-informed decision making.
• Manage applications that are complex, sensitive, and contentious or require more specialist or technical knowledge in order to protect the public and provide an effective service.
• Make objective, defensible, decisions using the national decision making model in order to protect the public from foreseeable harm.
• Manage intelligence regarding the importation and exportation of weapons and ammunition, working closely with key stakeholders and partner agencies, in order to protect the public.
• Attend court where necessary in connection with appeals or as a witness, and if required provide legal counsel with specialist, technical and legal advice, to assist with the criminal and civil justice processes.
Behaviours
All roles are expected to know, understand and act within the ethics and values of the Police Service.
The Competency and Values Framework (CVF) has six competencies that are clustered into three groups. Under each competency are three levels that show what behaviours will look like in practice.
It is suggested that this role should be operating or working towards the following levels of the CVF:
Resolute, compassionate and committed
Inclusive, enabling and visionary leadership
Intelligent, creative and informed policing
Education, Qualifications, Skills and Experience
Prior Education and Experience:
• Comprehensive knowledge of all legislation relevant to the regulation and control of shotguns and firearms.
• Experience of managing a team.
Skills:
• Skilled in the inspection and handling of shotguns and firearms.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to set out logical arguments clearly, adapting language, form and message to meet the needs of different people/audiences.
• Able to develop and motivate a team and create strong engagement of individuals with their personal and team objectives and with force values, behaviours and strategic priorities.
• Able to review and assess own, individual and team performance against expected standards, providing objective and effective feedback and ensuring corrective actions are taken where necessary.
• Able to coach and mentor junior colleagues to enable appropriate career and professional development.
• Able to plan ahead and allocate work appropriately within the team.
• Able to identify key stakeholders, understand potential roles and to take appropriate steps to understand their needs and concerns and develop excellent working relationships.
• Problem solving skills with the ability to identify cause and effect and develop a course of action, drawing on evidence base, designed to target root causes, mitigate risks and manage impacts.
• Able to critically question and identify potential opportunities to enhance efficiency and/or effectiveness across own team.
• Able to identify, analyse, and manage risk to inform balanced, proportionate evidenced-based decisions.
• Able to manage the introduction of new processes or ways of working at team level.
• Skilled in using specialised software related to own area of work to extract, analyse, plan and report on data.
• Able to develop and maintain professional resilience in oneself and others in dealing with complex and challenging situations.
Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
• Personal responsibility for CPD.
• Research and refresh own subject matter expertise.
• Maintain skills and knowledge pertaining to firearms/weapon handling and inspection.
• Maintain currency of College of Policing Guidance, best practice and any local policy applicable to the operational police context.
• Maintain and update key knowledge, understanding and skills relating to legislation policy and practice across all functional policing areas of operational responsibility.
• Maintain knowledge and understanding of new approaches identified by evidence based policing research and problem solving and team working and synthesise these into working practice.
• Maintain a working knowledge and understanding of new and evolving crime threats and priorities; and current best practice to tackle these in order to enable a pro-active and preventative approach.
• Complete all annual and mandatory training including for example, fitness tests, personal safety training, first aid, and protecting information.
Professional Registration/Licenses
Not applicable.
Links to other Profiles
Firearms Enquiry Officer