Campaigners express ‘deep concern’ over police accountability review Campaigners have expressed “deep concern” over a review of police accountability launched in the wake of anger over the murder charge brought against the police officer who shot gang member Chris Kaba.
After Mr Blake was cleared, the Home Secretary announced that rules would be changed to give officers accused of murder or manslaughter after a shooting anonymity unless they were convicted, and to bring the threshold used by a watchdog for criminal investigations against police officers into line with standards used by the Crown Prosecution Service.
“Following the decision in W80, the civil standard used to scrutinise police use of force helps ensure misconduct hearings contribute to the police’s ability for learning, development and, ultimately, public confidence that inappropriate, excessive and dangerous use of force will be robustly accounted for,” the campaigners said.
“However, the legislative changes under consideration in this review would have had no impact on the prosecution of Mr Blake, leading us to conclude that this review is less a knee-jerk reaction but rather a dangerous and calculated attempt to use a high-profile case to push for less scrutiny and accountability of police actions.”.
Twelve police officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter during that time, one of whom was convicted – West Mercia Police Constable Benjamin Monk who was jailed in 2021 for the manslaughter of former footballer Dalian Atkinson.
