Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has written and open letter to Home Secretary Suella Braverman, urging her to “let the police police”.
Below is the letter in full:
Dear Home Secretary,
I welcome your announcement earlier at the moment that you’ll be launching a evaluate into how cops are held to account when pressure is used.
You will know from our earlier discussions that it’s an space that I consider is lengthy overdue for reform to deal with various imbalances.
In the UK we proudly police by consent, embracing the rules of accountability, transparency and impartial scrutiny. It is crucial that we’ve got a system which instructions the boldness of officers and the communities they serve.
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Of course, the place wrongdoing takes place the general public anticipate us to be held to the very best requirements. I’ve been clear on this in all areas of policing, and using pressure have to be no exception.
The system that judges officers’ actions must be rooted in integrity and choices must be reached swiftly, competently and with out worry or favour.
A evaluate is required to deal with accountability mechanisms, together with the insurance policies and practices of the Independent Office for Police Conduct and the Crown Prosecution Service, ideally with a give attention to the edge for investigating police use of pressure and involvement in pursuits.
The evaluate introduced at the moment is due to this fact a really welcome improvement.
I’ve spoken publicly in latest weeks about the necessity to let the police police. Our dedication to delivering change in the Met is unflinching and we’re making optimistic progress, however that progress is undermined by a system not set as much as assist officers succeed. I’ve recognized pursuits and use of pressure as areas the place we see essentially the most evident unfairness.
I make no touch upon any ongoing issues which are sub judice however the points raised on this letter return additional.
Accountability issues, however we should always not have allowed ourselves to develop a system the place cops get investigated for safely pursuing suspects, simply because the suspect acts recklessly and because of this injures themselves or another person.
This is unfair on our officers and discourages them from chasing down criminals.
Armed officers know they should justify their actions, particularly when deadly pressure is used. They are extraordinarily nicely skilled and an intrinsic a part of their coaching reinforces that pictures can solely be fired if completely obligatory to save lots of life.
Officers are individually accountable and accountable for his or her actions. Consequently, we’ve got one of many most secure fashions of armed policing on this planet.
Source: information.sky.com”