Yvette Cooper to revive Tory probe into accountability of firearms officers after Chris Kaba verdict

The home secretary is expected to make a Commons statement on Wednesday

Yvette Cooper will revive and complete a probe into how firearms police officers who take fatal shots in the line of duty are held to account after a police marksman was cleared of murdering Chris Kaba.

The home secretary is expected to make a Commons statement on Wednesday on the planned review following the acquittal of Martyn Blake.

In 2023, then home secretary Suella Braverman pledged to review the ways that firearms officers who take fatal shots are held accountable.

Plans to give swifter decisions to suspended officers and more clarity to victims were among the changes touted by the previous government.

Tory ministers also considered raising the threshold for referring firearms officers for prosecution.

Home secretary Yvette Cooper during a visit to Lewisham Police Station in south London (PA Wire)

Speaking to reporters on a plane to Samoa for a Commonwealth meeting, prime minister Keir Starmer would not be drawn into commenting on the jury decision in the trial but said his government would pick up the accountability review launched by the previous Tory administration.

Sir Keir said: “We are going to pick that up and complete that accountability review because it is important that the public have confidence in the police including of course the armed police.”

But a human rights barrister has warned it “doesn’t make sense” to use the case of Mr Blake to make legal changes to the accountability of firearms officers.

Abimbola Johnson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think that there is a risk of using this case as some sort of paradigm or archetype therefore to base the legal system around.

“It’s already extremely rare for us to see police officers being prosecuted under the criminal justice system for action that they have conducted whilst in the line of duty, so the idea that because Martyn Blake was brought to court for this matter, that we should therefore change the legal system is misleading.

“This is a matter that went all the way through the trial process and was allowed to remain before the jury until they drew their verdict, they reached their verdict.

“So I would be very hesitant to use this as the case to assert that there should be legal changes, and it’s really important to ensure that the public can have faith in the police as a profession and also in the legal system.”

Police marksman Martyn Blake was cleared of murdering Chris Kaba, pictured (PA Media)

But Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley is among the policing leaders to have called the current accountability system “broken”, expressing concerns it might lead to a loss of morale among firearms officers.

Meanwhile, Matt Cane, general secretary of the Metropolitan Police Federation, claimed police shootings are investigated by people with no operational experience.

“It remains a matter of grave concern that investigations into the most serious, complex and dynamic operational scenarios, such as this, are carried out by those who seemingly have little, or no, experience of policing, no understanding of this type of fast-moving and dangerous operational trained tactic involving split-second decision making in the most difficult and challenging circumstances,” he told the BBC.

Mr Kaba, who was 24, was unarmed when Mr Blake shot him through the windscreen of an Audi Q8 as he tried to ram his way past police cars on 5 September 2022.

But he was a “core member” of one of London’s most dangerous criminal gangs and was allegedly directly linked to two shootings in the six days before he was shot dead by police, a court has revealed to the public after lifting reporting restrictions.

It is understood the Independent Office for Police Conduct is separately reviewing whether Mr Blake should still face disciplinary proceedings.