Home Secretary announces a range of measures on police accountability

Today in a statement to MPs, the Home Secretary, Rt. Hon. Yvette Cooper, announced a range of measures on police accountability. This includes a national database of lessons learned where deaths or serious injury happen after police contact or pursuits.

Our police officers do immensely difficult work in complex, and often dangerous, situations in order to keep us, the public, safe. We expect officers to uphold the high standards we put in place to keep people safe and maintain the public’s confidence.

Today’s announcement by the Home Secretary gives us the ability to improve the way policing operates so that if a member of the public is injured or killed following police action there is a national database of lessons learned which can be incorporated into future training and guidance.

Alongside this, we must take note of the sobering reality of policing on the ground and the risk that undertaking the role often places on officers’ safety and that of their families. Every firearms officer in the UK undertakes that role voluntarily and I am grateful to the Government for announcing today that firearms officers will not be routinely named unless a conviction is secured in court.

No one, including officers who carry firearms, can be above the law and it is right for communities to expect a high level of accountability. However, as recognised by the Home Secretary today, any system of accountability must also give officers the confidence to act in accordance with their training and to not be penalised as a result.

Chief Constable Sir Andy Marsh, College of Policing CEO

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