My week on patrol with Britain's armed response police 21 minutes to read By: Nick Rufford Terror attacks, gang wars, armed robbery — as crime involving weapons surges, Britain's armed response officers have to be ready for anything. Nick Rufford joins them for a week. The first call of the evening comes on the radio at 8.36pm, less than 30 minutes after the armed response vehicle (ARV) rolled out on patrol from the prison-like gates of a grey police building in Lambeth, south London. We are on our way to a reported stabbing. A male youth is lying injured in a street in nearby Tooting. Those are all the details we have. He could be the victim of a gang skirmish, a targeted assault, or more chillingly, a terrorist attack.