The Court of Appeal has in the case of Jermaine Baker given important clarification of the test to be applied when determining whether police officers’ use of force will amount to misconduct. It has confirmed that where an officer claims to have made an honest mistake that he faced imminent danger, the force used in response may amount to misconduct if that belief was unreasonable.
The case arose out of the death of Jermaine Baker, who was fatally shot by a Metropolitan police officer on 11 December 2015. Jermaine was unarmed and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) concluded that the officer who fired the shot, known as W80, may have a case to answer for gross misconduct and should face proceedings on the basis that a misconduct panel could find that W80’s belief that Jermaine was reaching for a firearm was unreasonable.
Michael Oswald of Bhatt Murphy acts for the family of Mr Baker.
Read the Guardian’s coverage here.
