Armed policing strategic threat and risk assessment (APSTRA)
Armed policing — Authorised Professional Practice
Summary
Forces are required to produce an annual armed policing strategic threat and risk assessment (APSTRA). This assessment should be reviewed at least every six months and continually monitored to inform armed policing capability and capacity in response to local, regional, and national developments and requirements. Force APSTRAs will contribute to aggregated collaborative and national APSTRAs, ensuring that the operational requirements for armed policing and less lethal options within the applicable force or region are clearly established. The strategic threat and risk assessment (STRA) will guide decisions regarding armed policing deployment profiles, capability, firearms policy and training, and anticipated future demands and threats.
Key principles
- 1Annual production of APSTRA is mandatory for forces.
- 2Review of APSTRA every six months is required.
- 3Continuous monitoring of APSTRA to inform capability and capacity.
- 4APSTRAs contribute to national assessments for collaboration.
- 5STRA informs deployment profile and policy.
- 6Establish operational requirements for armed policing.
Defined terms
- Armed policing strategic threat and risk assessment (APSTRA)
- An annual assessment required from forces to evaluate armed policing needs.
- Strategic threat and risk assessment (STRA)
- A framework to inform decisions related to armed policing deployment and capability.
Full guidance
Armed policing strategic threat and risk assessment (APSTRA)
This page is from APP, the official source of professional practice for policing.
Forces are required to produce an annual armed policing strategic threat and risk assessment (APSTRA). The APSTRA will be reviewed at least every six months, but should be continually monitored and utilised to inform armed policing capability and capacity in response to local regional and national developments and requirements.
Force APSTRAs will be used to create aggregated collaborative and national APSTRAs.
The purpose of the APSTRA is to establish the operational requirements for armed policing and less lethal options within the applicable force or region.
The strategic threat and risk assessment (STRA) will inform decisions to be made with regard to the appropriate:
armed policing deployment profile across the force (or relevant area) * armed policing capability * armed policing firearms policy and training * future armed policing demands and threats
The following document is available on Knowledge Hub in support of the production of an STRA:
‘Direction on the compilation of armed policing strategic threat and risk assessments (APSTRAs)’ 2019.
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Read the full APP guidanceSource: College of Policing — Authorised Professional Practice · Crown copyright, licensed under Open Government Licence v3.0. Summary fetched 2026-06-27.