00:00In December of 2015, Jermaine Baker from Tottenham was shot at close range by counter-terrorism specialist firearms officer, known only as W80, who thought he was reaching for a gun.
00:16Mr 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.
00:27The misconduct hearing, this misconduct proceedings involving W80 began last week after years of legal battles over the case in which he was accused of breaching professional standards over the use of force.
00:45Prosecutors 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.
01:00In 2023, the Supreme Court found in the IOPC's favour, meaning the misconduct hearing, would go ahead.
01:11There was also a public inquiry into Mr Baker's death that concluded in 2022 that he had been lawfully killed.
01:20The hearing was thrown out on Wednesday.
01:23We must overhaul how policing decisions, which are taken in split seconds, are later reviewed, with the benefit of hindsight, on freeze frame.
01:34Indeed, the current system allows criminals and their legal teams to weaponise those decisions against officers, undermining their confidence to pursue criminals or to use force.
01:46In a recent one-to-one meeting with Whiskey 80, I was left both upset and angry to see the effect this decade of legal madness has had on him and on his family.
01:58A rapid independent review was commissioned last October as part of work by this government on police accountability, and it reported to the Home Office this spring.
02:10This rapid review examined the legal test for the use of force in misconduct cases, the exact issue at hand in Whiskey 80's case.
02:18I do hope that the government will now meet their commitment to officers by publishing and acting upon the review's findings and recommendations without further delay.
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