MPS and IPCC apologise to Mark Duggan’s family

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) have issued apologies to the family of Mark Duggan after an IPCC investigation found failings on the part of both organisations.

Mr Duggan was killed by MPS officers on August 4, 2011, and the incident is widely regarded as the catalyst to riots across English cities in the days afterwards. An IPCC investigation into the circumstances of his death is continuing, however, a report by the IPCC into a lack of contact and support between Mr Duggan’s family and the police and IPCC has found both organisations failed to adequately communicate with the family.

Mr Duggan’s family placed a formal complaint in September that they had not been told of his death by the MPS or the IPCC.

Although there is no dispute that two members of Mr Duggan’s family, who had introduced themselves as his sister and his partner, were spoken to by a police family liaison officer at the scene and on the night of the shooting, their accounts of those discussions differ significantly from those of the police.

The family liaison officer told the IPCC that he had confirmed to those family members with ’99 per cent certainty’ that the person who had been shot was Mark. In his account, those family members had asked that the police not attend the Duggan family home to formally notify his parents, as it would be too much of a shock for them and that they would do it themselves.

By contrast, both family members are categorical that neither of them told the family liaison officers that the police should not visit Mr Duggan’s parents to tell them the news of his death, nor did they say that they would inform his parents themselves. Indeed, both have said that they left the scene uncertain that the dead man was Mark Duggan, so in their view, they would not have been in a position to deliver such news to his parents.

The IPCC took over family liaison on Friday August 5 and were told by the MPS that Mr Duggan’s parents did not want direct contact. An IPCC family liaison manager telephoned a family member and made arrangements for the formal identification of Mr Duggan’s body the following day.

In the aftermath of Mr Duggan’s death, his family were very confused and wanted to know what had happened to him. They did not understand the role of the IPCC, nor that the organisation was separate from the police. It would have greatly assisted them if a senior representative of the IPCC had visited the family home to introduce the organisation and explain its role.

IPCC Commissioner Rachel Cerfontyne said: “With the benefit of hindsight, the IPCC should have explored the family’s wishes in more depth following the handover from the police family liaison officers, and not made the assumption that any wishes that may have been expressed by the family in relation to the police would automatically extend to the IPCC.

“Mark’s mother told us that she was receiving conflicting messages from various people in the community and the lack of formal notification allowed her to hope that the worst had not happened. What is clear from this case is that a grieving family, suffering from shock, felt badly treated by the police and the IPCC.”

Commander Mak Chishty, MPS North Area Commander, said: “We recognise that it was the responsibility of the MPS to keep the family informed immediately following the shooting and up until it was handed over to the IPCC family liaison managers.

“We acknowledge and apologise for the distress caused by not speaking directly to Mark Duggan`s parents; Pamela Duggan and Bruno Hall.

“I met with the family of Mark Duggan on September 2, 2011, and apologised to them directly on behalf of the MPS for the distress caused by officers not attending personally to inform them of their son’s death.”