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.
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.
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.”
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.
‘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.”
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.
