BRITAIN’S highest-ranking cop fears “inhumane” rules are putting armed police and the public at risk.
Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley says officers are being deterred from taking on firearms roles by a “brutal” accountability system.
Sir Mark feels the current triple jeopardy rules — meaning an officer can be effectively held to account at criminal, inquest and disciplinary proceedings — could result in cops declining to carry weapons because of the legal backlash if they open fire.
Officers have told him they could not volunteer for gun roles as they worry about being left hanging out to dry by the draconian system.
He added other officers were stepping down from firearms jobs because of legal risks involved with carrying a gun to protect the public.
Sir Mark told The Sun: “That makes our firearms capability very, very fragile.”
Ten-year legal ordeal
He pointed out firearms officers currently fear the law more than the danger on the street.
Sir Mark said: “Given they are confronting armed criminals and terrorists, the fact the legal danger is quite often a greater spectre is perverse.”
Last available figures showed the Met has around 2,500 armed officers — roughly a third of the national police firearms cover — and hoped then to increase that by another 600.
Sir Mark said: “We have got what we need at the moment, just about, and they (firearms officers) are doing an amazing job . . . but it’s precarious.”
His warning comes after an armed officer who shot dead a gangster had gross misconduct accusations dismissed last week following a 10-year legal ordeal.
The officer — codenamed W80 — shot dead Jermaine Baker, 28, during a foiled prison van breakout near North London’s Wood Green crown court in December 2015.
Father-of-two Baker, of Tottenham, was sitting in the front passenger seat of a stolen Audi A6 and was shot at close range by W80, who thought he was reaching for a firearm.
Although Baker was unarmed, an imitation Uzi machine gun was later found in the back of the Audi.
W80 was suspended and arrested on suspicion of murder but two years later the CPS ruled there was insufficient evidence to bring charges against him.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct ordered W80 should face a misconduct hearing for using excessive force, which the Met Police challenged in court.
Losing confidence
A public inquiry concluded in 2022 that Baker was killed lawfully but the following year Supreme Court judges backed the IOPC’s quest for a gross misconduct hearing.
Sir Mark said of the W80 case: “It is a disgraceful way to treat an officer who is going out to protect the public.
“Every officer knows they are going to be held personally to account but it’s not reasonable or humane to take ten years over it.”
Another firearms officer, Sgt Martyn Blake, 42, is facing a gross misconduct board — ordered by the IOPC against the Met’s wishes — for killing gang member Chris Kaba in September 2022.
The officer was acquitted by an Old Bailey jury of Kaba’s murder in October last year.
His trial heard how career criminal Kaba had tried to ram his way out of a police roadblock in Streatham, South London, forcing Sgt Blake to open fire to protect colleagues.
We need to put more support behind them so they understand the accountability will be swift and fair, not long and torturous
Sir Mark Rowley
Around 300 firearms officers temporarily handed in their weapons in protest at Sgt Blake being charged with Kaba’s murder in September 2023.
Sir Mark said the walkout was the result of firearms officers losing confidence in the system.
He added: “They care about what they are doing. They are also very worried about the legal jeopardy they put themselves in by doing their job.
“We need to put more support behind them so they understand the accountability will be swift and fair, not long and torturous like we have seen in too many cases.”
Sir Mark is calling for accountability rules to be reformed so a single threshold of evidence can be used in police shooting investigations within a reasonable timeframe.
Presently, firearms officers face up to three separate layers of investigations with different burdens of proof for criminal, inquest and disciplinary proceedings prolonging cases for years.
Speaking from his office at New Scotland Yard, Sir Mark said: “That means an officer can effectively be held to account by a court in three different processes.
“Those things then stack one after the other . . . that spins this out for ever.”
The Met chief went on: “It’s a muddle and leads to this ladder effect of having to jump through hoops one after the other . . .
“We should be looking at officers under a national framework and they should be tested against what they have been trained to do within the law.”
‘Legal madness’
He continued: “I can’t see why there isn’t a statutory timeline on these processes.
“The investigations are not the most complex. When the IOPC does an investigation they know who was at the scene, they have got all the materials to do the forensics.
“It would be good if it took weeks not months to pull that together.
“You can’t have officers’ lives put on hold for three, five or ten years. It’s completely inhumane. That’s brutal.”
An independent review of police accountability rules has been carried out by former senior judge Sir Adrian Fulford and ex-Met Police deputy commissioner Tim Godwin.
It was commissioned by former Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and their report, submitted in the spring, is expected to be published shortly.
The Government has already changed the rules so armed cops charged over shootings will not be identified unless convicted.
Nobody understands why this can’t be done in a year rather than taking a decade
Sir Mark Rawley
But Sir Mark says it is essential the complex accountability system is overhauled.
The commissioner has lent his personal support to W80 and met with other firearms officers and their families caught up in the “legal madness” of the current accountability system.
Sir Mark said: “I see the way that the pressure hangs over them for a long period of time.
“They (firearms officers) know they signed up for a difficult job.
“They know that of course if they pull the trigger they will be held to account.
“But nobody understands why this can’t be done in a year rather than taking a decade.”
He said it was “hard enough” for officers to go through this, but “even worse” for their families who were unaware of the legal processes.
“The human toll is really significant,” Sir Mark said.
‘It’s unfair’
A FIREARMS cop told how his life was turned upside down and he was left hanging for more than five years after coming under investigation over a shooting.
The officer said: “It’s all-consuming. It went on for years and years… every hour of every day for years it was in the forefront (of my mind).
“It didn’t matter what you were doing…it was always there.”
The anonymous officer was attached to Met’s Specialist Firearms Command at the time of the shooting – which The Sun is not specifying at his request.
He came under investigation by separate legal processes overseen by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
Speaking of the impact on his own family, who feared he could be jailed, the officer said: “I can’t really put into words what significant and lasting upset that caused for everyone.”
He added: “We are all aware that you have to be accountable for your actions. Ultimately we do a very serious job and we are trusted to do that.
“But I think if people did realise it was going to take six or 10 years, I think you’d really struggle to get people to do the job.”
The officer said he always believed his actions were justifiable and necessary.
But he said: “Even though I believed everything I did was correct, there’s always that chance that someone doesn’t agree with that.”
He told of the financial impact on his family of the gruelling legal process which left him unable to carry out operational duties and claim vital overtime payments.
The officer also spoke of the difference in investigations when shootings involve terrorists or criminals.
He said: “There is a significant disparity between crime and counter-terrorism-related shootings.
“The rationale of officers using force is no different when they believe there is a threat to someone’s life.
“But I have seen officers involved with CT shootings. Of course they start a process but the turnaround time for that has been within months.
“I have seen those officers receive commissioner’s commendations, medals. But the rationale behind their decision making is no different and they are back at work doing what they love to do within months.”
The officer backed Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley’s call for a single test of evidence to be used for investigating police shootings – as opposed to the current three separate strands.
He said: “It’s unfair you can get through one bit and there’s another bit of the cherry and you get through that bit and they try again. That puts you down all the time.
“In terms of the timeframe, a year would be reasonable but three, five, 10 years..you are living with that all the time.
“It doesn’t go away. Everyone else goes home for the weekend but we are still dealing with that.
“For a number of years on every holiday, it’s not a holiday because even in your quiet time you are just worried about what is going to happen when you come back.”
He said it took him a couple of months to settle back to his normal routine after his legal ordeal finally ended.
The cop said: “I am quite a resilient person. I do believe that not everyone would be as resilient as me…individuals could find themselves in severe issues.”
