The Met police commissioner will use his final major speech in the position to ask the public for “less suspicion and more trust” in armed officers.

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe is set to step down from his role as head of London’s police service later this month after announcing his early retirement last year.

He will speak at the royal united services institute today (Tuesday, February 14) about encouraging greater support of firearms officers who deal with terrorists and armed criminals.

The commissioner ordered an increase of 600 specialist officers in response to the Paris attacks of November 2015 and is concerned about the treatment of officers involved in shootings.

He will say later today: “When people look at what we do, there should be less suspicion and more trust.

“This a dangerous place to be in two ways.

“We simply don’t have enough people now wanting to do these jobs – the failure rate in training is high.

“Secondly, we can’t afford to have officers think twice because they fear the consequences of shooting someone.

“That is how they get shot, or the public gets hurt or a criminal gets away with a gun.”

According to police figures, the Met deployed to incidents involving firearms on more than 3,300 occasions in 2016, without firing a single shot at a suspect.

But Sir Bernard will also reiterate his concern over armed criminality after a year in which nearly 700 firearms were recovered by officers in London and 12 people were shot dead by criminals.

More than 400 extra officers have been trained or selected to become firearms officers to date.