One of the most worrying things here, to me.
We have 100 highly trained police staff who do not trust our legal process to only prosecute the guilty.
this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
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I’ve got quite a few police officers in my circle of friends and tbh, I’ve rarely heard anything good about the justice system from them.
Normally they tell me of cases where CPS will refuse to charge for what should be easy cases with a ton of evidence and when all the procedures were followed.
My suspicion is that this charge is political grandstanding.
So, you know that the CPS often don't charge but, also, this is clearly a gratuitous charge?
And it is political grandstanding but the Home Secretary opposes prosecuting officers?
It's ridiculously rare for police officers to face any kind of disciplinary action, let alone prosecution. We will have to wait for the court case, reporting restrictions are in place so none of us have enough information to judge.
But we do know that the CPS don't prosecute unless they believe there is at least a 50% chance of a guilty verdict and, if there is any political context to this prosecution, it is the belated recognition that criminal officers have routinely been allowed to stay on the job.
So unless they can shoot with impunity, they won't fulfill their oath to serve and protect the public. Feels like we're being held hostage.
I'm not sure if being able to shoot with impunity is what these armed officers are asking for. It seems that they've lost confidence that the justice systems will treat them or their colleagues fairly after being asked to make split second decisions that could result in someone losing their life in extremely dangerous situations.
The police should be accountable, but I don't think it's good for either the police or the public that these armed officers hesitate to act in situations that call for their intervention because they're worried about being prosecuted if it all goes wrong.
Officers who were acting by the book shouldn't be afraid of doing their job just because there was an unfortunate outcome.
Police losing faith in the justice system doesn’t sound ideal
Would definitely go some way to explaining why morale in the police (the Met at least) has been terrible for years and experienced officers are leaving faster than new ones are joining.
Why do such a stressful job if you don’t even believe you’re ultimately making a difference?