Misconduct hearing for Met firearms officer thrown out

A misconduct hearing for a Met Police firearms officer who fatally shot a man in 2015 has been discontinued.

The officer, known only as W80, shot Jermaine Baker as police stopped a plot to snatch two prisoners from a van near Wood Green Crown Court

The chairman of the panel said they found no case to answer.

Chairman of the hearing panel Chris McKay said:

"The decision of the panel is that we find there is no case for W80 to answer in these proceedings and accordingly the case against W80 is dismissed.

"The full reasons will follow as the rules provide in the next five working days."

Father-of-two Mr Baker, from Tottenham, north London, was shot at close range by counter-terrorism specialist firearms officer W80, who thought he was reaching for a gun.

Mr Baker, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of a stolen Audi A6, was unarmed and an imitation firearm was later found in the back of the Audi, the misconduct hearing previously heard.

The misconduct proceedings involving W80 began last week after years of legal battles over the case, in which he is accused of breaching professional standards over the use of force.

W80 was a counter-terrorism firearms officer in the "highest tier" of armed officers in the country and had been trained to carry a gun since 1998.

The discontinued misconduct hearing came nearly 10 years after Mr Baker died, after years of legal battles around the case.

Prosecutors said in 2017 that there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges over the shooting, but a police watchdog directed that the officer should face misconduct proceedings.

This sparked a lengthy legal battle between watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and the officer, who was supported by the Met.

In 2023, the Supreme Court found in the IOPC's favour, meaning the misconduct hearing would go ahead.

There was also a public inquiry into Mr Baker's death, that concluded in 2022 that he had been lawfully killed.

Paula Dodds, chairwoman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said: "Being a firearms officer in London is one of the world's toughest jobs. Officers, who volunteer for this role, know the responsibility and accountability that comes with it.

"Our police officers, however, must also have confidence that they have the legal protections needed to do the difficult and dangerous jobs society expects of them.

"The actions and arguments from the Independent Office for Police Conduct have been questionable from start to finish. We have to ask who holds them to account for putting a courageous colleague through the past 10 years of torment?

"Police officers are the most accountable of public services. But how can it be right for a police officer protecting the public from dangerous criminals to have such a case hanging over them for a decade? It's hugely concerning that this case lasted so long.

"We need those in the criminal justice system making decisions potentially affecting our colleagues' livelihoods and liberty to have some understanding of the environment we work in and the reality of policing London."

She added: "Today's result means our colleague W80 can put this incident behind him with an unblemished character. And we are proud to have supported him throughout the legal process. We ask that W80 and his family are now left alone to get on with their lives."

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said:

“We remain acutely aware of the profound loss experienced by Mr Baker’s family and the enduring impact this case has had on them over the past decade.

“Today’s outcome is the right one. It follows a criminal investigation and a public inquiry that both found W80 acted appropriately during a fast-moving police operation to stop a highly dangerous gang freeing a prisoner.

“But W80 should never have been put in the position – an astonishing 10 years after the incident – of having to once again justify his actions to counter the very real threat he believed he and his colleagues faced that day.

“It goes to the very heart of the imbalance in how police are held accountable in this country. Too often I see the trauma of good officers who are prepared to confront dangerous criminals but are then left destroyed by a bureaucratic, slow and broken system of police accountability.

“We must overhaul how policing decisions, which are taken in split seconds, are later reviewed with the benefit of hindsight on freeze frame. The current system allows criminals and their legal teams to weaponise those decisions against officers, undermining their confidence to pursue criminals or use force. In a recent meeting with W80 I was left both upset and angry by the effect this decade of legal madness has had on him and his family.

“A rapid independent review was commissioned last October as part of work by this Government on police accountability, and reported to the Home Office in the spring. This rapid review examined the legal test for use of force in police misconduct cases - the exact issue in W80’s case.

“I hope the Government will now meet their commitment to officers by publishing and acting on the review’s findings and recommendations without delay.

“As I have said before, until we have a more just and timely system, it will continue to crush the spirit and confidence of our good officers to police London and keep us all safe.”

Margaret Smith, the mother of Jermaine Baker, said: "Since the day almost 10 years ago that my son Jermaine was shot and killed by W80, the Metropolitan Police has taken every possible step to avoid their officer or their organisation from facing scrutiny and accountability for his death.

"That included going all the way to the Supreme Court to avoid W80 facing disciplinary proceedings.

"Against that background, my family and I never had any faith in this gross misconduct hearing, which was conducted by the Met Police; we did not attend the hearing, and the outcome today comes as no surprise whatsoever.

"We have heard the evidence about what happened to Jermaine and we know that there was no justification for his death. My family and I will remember Jermaine as the man we knew.

"The multiple legal processes we have had to endure over the last 10 years have prevented us grieving his loss. That will be our focus now and we ask to be left in private to do so."

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