By Gavin Mackintosh
A police-led taskforce formed in August is examining how intelligence is collected and managed during pre-planned armed operations in England and Wales.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) have identified 16 failings by GMP before the shooting of Anthony Grainger- shot dead by a Greater Manchester Police (GMP) marksman through the windscreen of an Audi in a car park in Culcheth, Cheshire in March 2012.
.The shocking finding exposes serious failings in the system that guides the decision to deploy armed police in the Uk, one that has sadly and irreversibly cost a life. Judge Teague is planning to make a series of recommendations to GMP, and possibly other forces in England and Wales, about pre-planned firearms operations in his report to the home secretary, Amber Rudd.
In a call for evidence in November – and in what some saw as an indication of the judge’s possible future recommendations – Teague asked forces whether any national reviews had been undertaken following the fatal police shootings of Mark Duggan in 2011 and Azelle Rodney in 2005.
The judge is also inquiring into whether there are national policies for the use of body-worn video, or the recording of radio communications, for firearms officers on armed operations.
The group of senior officers was established following concerns raised last year at the public inquiry into the deadly police shooting of Anthony Grainger.
Grainger was shot dead by a Greater Manchester Police (GMP) marksman through the windscreen of an Audi in a car park in Culcheth, Cheshire in March 2012.
The unarmed 36-year-old was under observation following suspicions he was part of a gang planning armed robberies.
A public inquiry at Liverpool crown court heard that the decision to deploy armed officers was based on out of date intelligence. The
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) identified 16 failings by GMP before the shooting. The shocking finding exposes serious police failings that cannot be reversed.
The inquiry judge, Thomas Teague QC is expected to publish his final report into the shooting later this year and GMP is braced for strong criticism.
UPDATED
At a hearing on Thursday, two senior GMP officers told the inquiry that the force’s practices were being updated following concerns raised at the inquiry.
Detective chief constable Anthony Creely, of GMP, said he was leading a “working group” of senior officers carrying out a national review of how similar armed investigations are managed.
Creely, who runs the north-west organised crime unit Titan, said he was asked by GMP’s assistant chief constable, Vanessa Jardin, to lead the review alongside assistant chief constable Alan Barr of Merseyside police.
He added: “When we had the sit-down and we looked at the issues coming out of the public inquiry and how we were interpreting them … we said it was wider than GMP, it goes wider than regional and national.” This means serious deficiencies in the way the decision for the use of armed marksmen is made.
IMPROVEMENT
Creely admitted that the review identified areas for improvement that could be brought in “before the summertime” and others that needed to be signed off by police leads at the National Police Chiefs Council.
Two other senior GMP officers, assistant chief constable Steve Heywood, who authorised the operation in which Grainger died, and Det Ch Insp Robert Cousen, are under investigation by the IOPC for alleged gross misconduct over evidence given to the inquiry.
ACC Heywood has admitted there were “some flaws” in his record-keeping and “apologised unreservedly” for them but he strongly denied deliberately misleading the inquiry. Members of the public will not hold their breath that the investigation will, investigations of police misconduct do not have a good track record of fair judgements. Whilst the IOPC is in principle independent of the police, public confidence in so-called independent bodies to deliver legitimate judgements is very low. Many policemen up and down the country have varied influences in the matters concerning the police, but the IOPC have made judgements against police officers in the past.
When it comes to the decision to pull the trigger against a suspected criminal, the argument has generally been that split second decisions between life and death is given greater protection and consideration over a decision that turns out to be wrong. The identification of 16 failings in the killing of Grainger is so serious, it is difficult to imagine how there can be no serious punishment handed to guilty parties.