History of the Metropolitan Police Service by the end of the 19th century. During the 1860s, the flintlock pistols that had been purchased in 1829 were decommissioned from service, being superseded by 622 Beaumont–Adams revolvers firing the .450 cartridge which were loaned from the army stores at the Tower of London following the Clerkenwell bombing. In 1883, a ballot was carried out to gather information on officers' views on whether they wished to be armed, and 4,430 out of 6,325 officers serving on outer divisions requested to be issued with revolvers. The now obsolete Adams revolver was returned to stores for emergencies, and the Bulldog 'Metropolitan
Operation Trident (Metropolitan Police) was charged. Operation Trident (Metropolitan Police) Operation Trident, or simply Trident, is a Metropolitan Police Service unit originally set up in 1998 to tackle gun crime and homicide in London's Afro-Caribbean communities following a series of shootings in the London boroughs of Lambeth and Brent. By 2008 the unit was responsible for investigating "all" non-fatal shootings for "the Metropolitan Police" and in February 2012 the unit's remit was again expanded; the new Trident Gang Crime Command was launched incorporating responsibility for tackling wider gang crime. In 2013 the unit gave up responsibility for investigating fatal shootings which was taken over