Police Chief Says Officers Could end up Being Ordered to Carry Firearms

A senior police officer has warned Britain is ’sleepwalking' into a situation where chief constables have to order their officers to carry guns.

A forensics officer takes photographs of the scene where 24 year old Chris Kaba was killed by police in Kirkstall Gardens, Streatham Hill, south London, on Sept. 5, 2022. PA

The National Police Chiefs’ Council’s armed policing lead, Simon Chesterman, has warned the days of officers volunteering for firearms duties may be over and chief constables may be forced to order, or mandate, personnel to carry guns.

At a conference in London on Thursday, Mr. Chesterman said armed policing was in a, “precarious and difficult position.”

Mr. Chesterman did not mention either the case of NX121—the police officer who has been charged with murdering Chris Kaba during an armed stop in Streatham, south London last year—or W80, an officer who faces a gross misconduct hearing in relation to the death in 2015 of Jermaine Baker, despite a public inquiry ruling the shooting was lawful.

But he said large numbers of officers had chosen in recent months to step down from armed duties—a process known as handing in their tickets—out of concern for how they might be treated should they kill or injure someone while on duty.

Mr. Chesterman, who has been chief constable of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary—which guards Britain’s nuclear power stations—since 2019, said, “My greatest concern is that, unless we can redress the balance slightly, we will struggle to retain the armed officers we’ve got, and we will certainly struggle to attract people to the role, as I say, it is voluntary.”

Will Officers Have to be Mandated to Carry Firearms?

He said, “The only way that we can mandate officers carrying firearms is by recruiting officers to be firearms officers, and my worry is that, after hundreds of years of tradition in this country of having an unarmed police service, we could be sleepwalking into having to mandate officers to carry firearms.”

Mr. Chesterman described it as a “serious situation.”

A number of firearms officers in the Metropolitan Police stepped back from armed duties earlier this year after NX121 was charged with murder and many more were upset when Judge Mark Lucraft KC agreed last month to lift the order protecting the officer’s anonymity.

NX121 is on conditional bail ahead of his trial, which has been provisionally set for September 2024, and Judge Lucraft ordered his anonymity be life on Jan. 30, 2024.

In September the former Home Secretary Suella Braverman announced a review of armed policing, which will look at whether, “the existing legislation underpinning use of force, including defences, provides sufficient protections for police officers in the line of duty, particularly in respect of firearms officers.

The Home Office is also investigating if the legal tests on the use of force in self-defence should be “clarified or changed” in misconduct proceedings and inquests.

Mr. Chesterman said if the review did not satisfy armed officers, substantial numbers could quit the role, which would  create a risk to the public.

‘Concerns are Widespread’

He said: “I know that the concerns are widespread. If the review doesn’t go in the direction we want it to go in, are we going to see everybody stepping back?

“Of course we won’t. There will be people who are still prepared to go out there and put themselves in jeopardy to protect the public, I absolutely get that. But my concern is that it could affect significant numbers and that will create risk.”

Undated family handout photo of Jermaine Baker, who was shot dead by police near Wood Green Crown Court on Dec. 11, 2015. Baker family/PA

Firearms officers are closely watching the cases of NX121 and W80.

NX121—whose real name is expected to be released at the end of January—faces a jury trial at the Old Bailey, with the prosecution having to prove he intended to kill Mr. Kaba and did not have a lawful excuse, such as self-defence.

W80 fired at Mr. Baker from point blank range during an operation on Dec. 11, 2015 to prevent a notorious gangster, Izzet Eren, being sprung from a prison van as it approached Wood Green Crown Court in north London.

Both Mr. Kaba and Mr. Baker were black men who were found to be unarmed at the time, although a replica Uzi submachine gun was found in the car Mr. Baker was in.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission—which was replaced by the IOPC in 2018—completed an independent investigation into the Jermaine Baker shooting in December 2016. It sent a report to the Crown Prosecution Service, which decided not to charge W80, and recommended W80 had a case to answer for gross misconduct.

The Met supported W80 when he exercised his right to challenge the IOPC’s decision through the courts but in July 2023 the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the police watchdog.

PA Media contributed to this report.