Police apologise for firearms exercise
POLICE were yesterday forced to apologise after islanders were angered that the force had failed to give prior warning of a firearms training exercise held near homes.
Many complained that the unexpected gunshots left them and their pets scared. Some children in the Northside area were also unable to sleep, parents said.
The media were not informed and nothing was posted in advance on either Twitter or Facebook.
Inspector Trevor Coleman said Guernsey Police did send letters to households in the immediate vicinity warning them of the possible disturbance.
He said the force was sorry for any alarm the noise caused.
'We apologise if people received the letter and felt disturbed, but also if the noise may have reached beyond the area where we notified people,' he said.
Inspector Coleman said it had not yet reviewed whether changes would be made to how residents were notified of similar operations and that would depend on the location of the training.
