Federation: Officers need decent top cover and support to carry out those duties with confidence

24 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

Neil Mennie, Chair of Kent Police Federation, said: “We ask officers to operate in some very special environments and rely on them to make numerous decisions that carry a huge amount of risk.

"In reality much legislation was never designed to take this into account and you cannot apply the ‘ordinary’ tests in circumstances that are often very far from that.

"Whether it's driving, carrying firearms, use of force and numerous other activities we carry out on behalf of society, officers need decent top cover and support to carry out those duties with confidence.

"Anonymity is welcome where appropriate and prevents the guilty until proven innocent optics that risk destroying an officer's career and private life where they are doing the very best they can in protecting the public and their colleagues."