Home Secretary to introduce ‘presumption of anonymity’ for firearms officers on trial

It comes after Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) firearms officer Sergeant Martyn Blake was acquitted of murder following the fatal shooting of Chris Kaba in September 2022.

The jury found him unanimously not guilty following a trial at the Old Bailey, which ended on Monday (October 21).

In a statement to MPs on Wednesday (October 23), Ms Cooper said: “When officers act in the most dangerous situations on behalf of the State, it is vital that those officers and their families are not put in further danger during any subsequent legal proceedings.

“For an armed police officer to be prosecuted for the actions taken in the course of their duties is very rare. So of course this case has raised considerable concerns for the public and the police.

“We will also ensure that the highly specialist nature of particular policing tactics and tools are reflected in relevant investigative guidance.

“That includes ensuring that in investigations of police driving incidents, evidence from subject matter experts and in-car video footage is considered at the earliest possible opportunity, and that more widely, an officer’s compliance with their training and guidance is appropriately taken into account in investigative decision making.”

Ms Cooper also outlined a package of reforms to rebuild confidence for police officers and for communities, to tackle the unacceptable delays and confusion in the accountability system, ensuring the complexity of specialist operations is considered at an early stage, and ensuring that the highest standards are upheld and maintained.

She said the case of Sgt Blake happened against a backdrop of “wider and long-standing concerns about accountability, standards and confidence”.

In particular, a backdrop in which police officers and forces have raised “long-standing concerns” about the way in which the accountability system currently operates, particularly in cases of specialist policing such as firearms and driving, where officers are asked to “do incredibly difficult and dangerous jobs to keep us safe”.

“For our policing model to work, it is essential that the police have the confidence of the communities they serve,” said Ms Cooper.

“And that officers have the confidence they need to do their vital and often extremely difficult job of keeping us all safe.

“Too often in recent times, both elements of that confidence have become frayed.”

Ms Cooper said they would also be taking forward measures proposed in a review by the previous government to strengthen and speed up the police accountability systems.

“The Accountability Review found that the current system for holding police officers to account is not commanding the confidence of either the public or the police,” the Home Secretary said.

“Accountability and misconduct proceedings are too often plagued by delays stretching for years which are damaging for complainants, officers and forces alike.

“And the system has become much more complex with confusion over multiple thresholds for different investigations and lack of clarity, especially involving specialist capabilities.

“There are also wider concerns about the misconduct system –because the focus when things go wrong can end up being entirely on the decisions of the individual officer, so system failings – like poor training, unmanageable caseloads or wider force practices – are not sufficiently considered or followed up so too little changes.

“And at the same time, as we saw following the Casey and Angiolini Reviews, in cases where someone is not fit to be a police officer, it is too hard for forces to remove them and communities feel that no one is held to account.

“So the public must be able to expect that where officers exceed the lawful use of their powers or fail to meet proper standards, there will be rapid and robust processes in place to hold them to account.

“And police officers who act with integrity and bravery to keep us safe each day need to know they have strong public support.

“Because if officers lack the confidence to use their powers following their training and the law, then public safety is put at risk.”

Ms Cooper said they will align the threshold for the referral of police officers from the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to that used by the police when referring cases involving members of the public. Currently that threshold is lower for police officers, and that is not justified, she said.

The IOPC will also be allowed to send cases to the CPS where there is sufficient evidence to do so, instead of having to wait for a final investigation report.

And the IOPC victims’ right to review policy will be put on a statutory footing, to ensure that there is an appeal mechanism for bereaved families when a decision is made not to seek a charging decision.

Ms Cooper said she also established a “rapid review” of two specific areas where recent legal judgments have now meant there are different thresholds for criminal, misconduct and inquest investigations, “adding complexity, confusion and delay to the system”.

In particular, it will look at the legal test for use of force in misconduct proceedings; and  the threshold for determining short form findings of unlawful killing in inquests.

The independent review will be conducted by Tim Godwin and the Rt Honourable Sir Adrian Fulford, and is expected to report jointly to the Home Secretaryand the Lord Chancellor by the end of January.

Ms Cooper said the College of Policing will be asked to establish a national ‘lessons learned database’ for deaths or serious injuries arising from police contact or police pursuits, so there is a responsibility to ensure lessons are incorporated into the development of police training and guidance when tragic incidents occur, and to prevent the repetition of such events in the future.

“To rebuild public confidence in the wider standards regime for policing we also need to ensure that there is faster progress in responding to the findings of the Angiolini and Casey reviews on  vetting and standards,” said Ms Cooper.

This will include taking forward previously agreed proposals to:

• Ensure that officers convicted of certain criminal offences are automatically found to have committed gross misconduct; and create a presumption of dismissal where gross misconduct is found; and
• Change regulations to enable chief constables to promptly dismiss officers who fail their vetting, which has been a glaring gap in the system for too long.

In addition, the Home Secretary said she will ensure statutory underpinning for national vetting standards; and strengthen requirements relating to the suspension of officers under investigation for domestic abuse or sexual offences.

“For more than 200 years, policing by consent has been the bedrock of British policing and  this Government is determined to take the action that is necessary today both to strengthen the confidence that the public must have in the police, and to strengthen the confidence that the police must have when they are out on the street each day, doing the difficult job of keeping us all safe,” said Ms Cooper.

MPS Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: “We welcome today’s announcement from the Government introducing important reforms to strengthen the police accountability system.

“These measures represent positive progress toward a system that is both fairer and faster, supporting the vast majority of officers who serve with integrity every day. The importance of these changes couldn’t have been demonstrated more clearly than by the acquittal of our firearms officer Sergeant Martyn Blake. He was a brave officer who acted in line with his training and faced immense danger to protect the public.

“Accountability of the law is critical, but the current system is protracted and unbalanced and fails to secure the confidence of the public and officers. Over many years this has created a culture where our officers are increasingly more worried about a skewed, imbalanced system than they are the dangerous criminals they face on the streets. If this continues, it risks making the public less safe.

“These reforms are a crucial and welcome step forward and we will now work with Government to deliver them at pace.”

Chief Constable Sir Andy Marsh, College of Policing chief executive officer, said: “Our police officers do immensely difficult work in complex, and often dangerous, situations in order to keep us, the public, safe. We expect officers to uphold the high standards we put in place to keep people safe and maintain the public’s confidence.

“Today’s announcement by the Home Secretary gives us the ability to improve the way policing operates so that if a member of the public is injured or killed following police action there is a national database of lessons learned which can be incorporated into future training and guidance.

“Alongside this, we must take note of the sobering reality of policing on the ground and the risk that undertaking the role often places on officers’ safety and that of their families. Every firearms officer in the UK undertakes that role voluntarily and I am grateful to the Government for announcing today that firearms officers will not be routinely named unless a conviction is secured in court.

“No one, including officers who carry firearms, can be above the law and it is right for communities to expect a high level of accountability. However, as recognised by the Home Secretary today, any system of accountability must also give officers the confidence to act in accordance with their training and to not be penalised as a result.”

Chief Constable Simon Chesterman, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for Armed Policing, said: “Our thoughts remain with Mr Kaba’s family and friends, and the wider community who we know have experienced the most terrible trauma after losing him.

“My thoughts also go to Sergeant Martyn Blake, his family, and colleagues, I do not underestimate the pressure and distress they all must have endured.

“The court case reflects the complex and difficult situations armed officers face and the decisions they have to make in a split second, under immense pressure.  In the UK it is rare that firearms officers discharge their weapons and even rarer that someone dies as a result.  When this happens, there must be proper investigation, accountability.

“Police officers are not above the law, and nobody expects them to be, but the system that holds officers to account when they use force to protect the public, their colleagues and themselves, has become broken.

“We are supportive of the Home Secretary’s announcement and welcome their commitment to getting it right for officers and the public they serve and improving overall policing standards for communities.

“The ongoing work on the Accountability Review now has momentum to continue and is a real opportunity to get the balance right in the interests of the public we are here to protect.

“We are proud have the most restrained and professional armed officers in the world, but increasingly they are more afraid of going to prison for doing their jobs, than facing the violent and dangerous individuals we rely on them to protect us from.

“Good police officers need to know that if they do what they are trained to do, they will be supported by the leaders of the police service, Government and most importantly the public.

“We remain determined to get police accountability right and we will support Government to address concerns about the current accountability system to restore the confidence of police officers and the public.”

Association of Police and Crime Commissioners chair Emily Spurrell said: “We welcome today’s announcement by the Home Secretary.

“In her statement to MPs, she acknowledged how challenging it is being a firearms officer. They are deployed to the most dangerous of incidents and must make split-second, often life and death, decisions to keep the public safe.

“The Home Secretary also recognised the backdrop of long-standing concerns in some communities regarding police accountability standards.

“It is right that measures are taken to help build public confidence in policing, while at the same time ensuring that firearms officers and the families of victims are protected and have access to quicker recourse to justice.

“Today’s commitments, including new legislation for police vetting and police performance standards, are vital to ensure we have a police force with the skills, training and culture, that the public want to see.”

Police Federation of England and Wales acting deputy national chair Brian Booth said: “We have been drawing to the Government’s attention that police officers up and down the country, who put their lives at stake in the line of duty to protect their communities, are feeling more and more vulnerable in doing their work because of weak and disproportionate accountability arrangements in law.

“The police are the public and the public are the police, hence, officers must have the confidence that they have the backing of people and the law when they use their specialised training and powers to ensure safety of the communities they serve.

“The Home Secretary’s assurance of legislating presumption of anonymity for firearms officers, up to the point of conviction, who are subject to criminal trial for offences relating to their professional duties is certainly a step in the right direction for ensuring the safety of officers and their families. I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to the Government to consider the NPCC’s proposal that the new anonymity law goes further to include all use of force by police officers while on duty and not just shootings.

“It is encouraging that the Government aims to include the highly specialist nature of policing tactics and tools in relevant guidance for investigating police driving incidents. We are also viewing positively the assurance of speeding up processes allowing the IOPC to send cases to the CPS where there is sufficient evidence instead of waiting for the final investigation report.

“However, these are promises and will remain mere words of support until endorsed by Parliament. We have lost considerable amount of time since the Accountability Review was announced last year, during which time significant damage has been caused to the morale of police officers who do the incredibly difficult and dangerous job of keeping the public safe.

“The Government must work at pace and ensure the assurances made on the floor of Parliament today are translated into law at the earliest.”

IOPC Director General Rachel Watson said: “We welcome the announcement and I am pleased the Home Secretary has committed to making the changes in law which we put forward as part of our response to the previous Government’s Accountability review.

“We are particularly pleased that measures which we recommended, to bring CPS referrals of criminal allegations against police officers in line with members of the public and to speed up processes between the IOPC and the CPS, will now be progressed.

“Rigorous independent scrutiny is a vital part of policing by consent and we must get the balance right between scrutiny which protects the public but doesn’t leave the police afraid to use their powers to keep us safe.

“We have been saying for some time that the arrangements for holding police to account need fundamental reform and have called for a wider review to address systemic barriers to timeliness in the misconduct system and to improve public and police confidence in the system.

“We welcome this announcement which seeks to put in place measures to improve timeliness and ensure there is greater clarity on the legislative framework. We look forward to working with the Government to support this.”