City of London Police Federation: "Police Accountability announcement is long overdue"

23 October 2024

Firearms police officers facing trial over shooting suspects will receive anonymity up to the point of conviction, the Home Secretary has said.

Yvette Cooper's announcement comes days after police officer Sgt Martyn Blake was cleared of murdering Chris Kaba.

Anonymity will stand on the rare instances firearms officers in England and Wales face criminal charges, Cooper said.

The reform to anonymity is part of a new package aimed at police accountability, which includes several measures proposed by the previous Government in March.

They include:

- Speeding up the process for the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog to send cases to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

- Raising the threshold for the IOPC to refer officers to the CPS

- Ensuring the highly specialised nature of certain policing tactics and tools is reflected in investigative guidance

Mike Reed, Chair of the City of London Police Federation, said: “This announcement is long overdue. Firearms officers are sent into the riskiest of situations to deal with real life threats to them and the public.

“They act on the training they are given but then get held accountable for their individual actions, as the use of force they use can only be justified by them.

“It has to be the case that when the force and Government put them into situations on their behalf that the training given has to be taken into account. What other job to you follow your employer’s rules and training and then it be you – and not your employer that has to answer for the action?”

Mike added: “Personally I’d like this to be rolled out to all use of forces by colleagues and incidents of death or serious injury (DSI). Although the Office of Constable is as an individual, we act for our Chief Officers and their directions.

“In the 12 years of being the City of London Police Federation Chair, I’ve never dealt with a disciplinary case where the investigation wasn’t more about the individual, than the organisation that put that person in the position where they are judged.

“The raising of the bar of case to be answered in discipline and conduct would be a massive step in the right direction. The current bar of 'may' is massively low and enables departments and other bodies to push a decision up the chain, when everyone else involved can see it's a job that will go nowhere.

“There's been far too to many examples of this recently - and it destroys the lives of officers, their families and frankly provides false hope to victims.

“I am very hopeful we may see a change but - as above - may is a very low bar, so I live in hope this makes a difference.”