British authorities say they are preparing the biggest protective security operation since the 2023 coronation of King Charles for US president Donald Trump’s state visit, deploying drones, snipers, mounted police and boat teams on the River Thames.
While any visit by a foreign head of state to Britain requires significant policing preparations, experts said that the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk in Utah on Wednesday, as well as the attempted assassination of Trump last year, have intensified the consideration of potential threats.
Trump is scheduled to arrive in London on Tuesday evening, before travelling to Windsor Castle, west of London, for a series of events with the royal family Wednesday.
Simon Morgan, a former Metropolitan Police royalty protection officer, said Kirk’s killing would cause officials planning the operation to “double down” on efforts to ensure no position where a “shot could be taken” was left open.
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“They will be seeking to control every aspect of the space, both in terms of on the ground and in the air,” said Morgan, who was a firearms officer in the Metropolitan Police for more than a decade. He protected the royal family from 2006-13 and now runs a private security company.
“The planners will be re-evaluating all the high points to make sure that they’re covered to make sure that there are no gaps – no buildings, no rooftops, no fire escapes where somebody could get a line of sight,” he said.
Armed police from across England and Wales, where only 4 per cent of officers are authorised to carry firearms, are being sent to London and Windsor to bolster the ranks of local forces during the three-day trip.
Police snipers will be “taking the high ground,” Morgan said, and using their positions to observe the president, British royals and assembled politicians and dignitaries.
Trump will meet King Charles and Queen Camilla, as well as the Prince and Princess of Wales, before riding in an open carriage through the town of Windsor and attending a state banquet. On Thursday, Trump is expected to meet prime minister Keir Starmer at Chequers, the grand country manor granted to sitting prime ministers in Britain, before returning to the United States.
Thames Valley Police, the force responsible for Windsor and the surrounding area, said it started to increase local patrols and security measures last week in preparation for the visit.
Airspace over the town will be restricted for the duration of the visit, with a legal order enforced using police drones and helicopters.
“We have a significant policing operation in place, but that’s made up of lots of different layers of security,” Chief Inspector Matthew Wilkinson, the officer responsible for airspace protection, said in an interview. “You’ll see officers in uniform on the ground. You’ll have armed response officers, airspace protection, marine units covering the Thames.”
Wilkinson said many security tactics deployed would be highly visible, but that others would be “very covert.”
That includes specialist armed officers, who will be protecting Trump, Britain’s royal family and politicians, as well as patrolling the crowds expected to gather for Wednesday’s carriage procession.
Britain has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. People who want to own firearms for legitimate reasons, such as farming and sport, must apply for a license from police and pass a series of checks that were tightened further this year.
Ownership of most handguns was banned after a 1996 school shooting in Scotland, and most legally owned firearms in Britain are shotguns.
Members of the Secret Service and Trump’s personal security team will be travelling with the president, and they will be bringing their own motorcade, including the armoured presidential limousine known as “The Beast.”
The transportation arrangements for this week’s visit have not been confirmed, but the BBC reported that during Trump’s 2019 state visit to Britain, two identical “Beast” cars were flown in on US Air Force aircraft alongside other security and communications vehicles.
Morgan said that it was common for the US State Department to make applications to the British government for a limited number of American officers to carry firearms.
Sgt Dan Hatfield, the operational firearms commander for the state visit, said British police had a “well forged and practised” relationship with their American counterparts, and had planned for “any eventualities.”
- This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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