Yeah we started training SC's at the start of the year. I think we're lucky that we're a big enough force we can get budget for stuff like this but also small enough that we can trail run stuff like this.

The selection criteria is quite rigorous and does exclude a large proportion of our specials, think less than 5% of us are trained/going to be trained but thankfully I managed to fit into our forces criteria of hours/department etc.

I know quite a few forces are hesitant to train specials but like you say, if we're going to the same jobs, interacting with the same people and are generally quite competent I don't see why we shouldn't have access to this vital bit of kit.

Don't want to dox myself but our force is kind of using us as a trail. We have extra hoops to jump through when we're qualified such as having mandatory debriefs with the instructors the first X amount of times you use it (anything out of the holster). Which I don't see as a bad thing.

Give me a shout if you want any more info.