#HarpersLaw: It's very, very welcome that we are looking at a mandatory life sentence for those who kill emergency services workers

25 November 2021

“It's very, very welcome that we are looking at a mandatory life sentence for people who commit that heinous act against emergency services workers and of course our colleagues as police officers.”

That was the reaction of Neil Mennie, the Chairman of Kent Police Federation, to the news that Harper’s Law is expected to become legislation early next year. It will bring in mandatory life sentences for offenders who kill emergency services workers while committing crimes.

The widow of PC Andrew Harper, Lissie Harper, has campaigned for a change in the law since he was killed in 2019.

Speaking on BBC Radio Kent today, Neil said: “This is fantastic news and testament to Lissie, who has worked so hard to get this legislation brought forward.”

He continued: “I hope the introduction of a mandatory life sentence for anyone convicted of killing a police officer, or emergency worker, will act as a strong deterrent and stop needless violence against my colleagues.

“There are people in society – ourselves, firefighters, ambulance drivers, paramedics, the list goes on – who are really doing their best to help people and protect people, and when they make the ultimate sacrifice on duty, it's really important that the people responsible for that are brought to book.”

Neil said police officers faced risk every day: “We have excellent training, but it takes a very special kind of person to be a police officer because of the unpredictable nature of every single call that you go to…once you arrive the circumstances can change and move very, very quickly, and there is a very large risk there.

“We do our best to try to negate it, but it's the unpredictability of what we deal with and the spontaneous nature of what we deal with that makes this job so dangerous and so challenging.”

Neil said he believed that the vast majority of the public in Kent supported the police, but “a tiny minority” acted violently against officers.