An investigation by the Financial Times has uncovered that settlement payments by the Metropolitan Police more than doubled in the past year to April 2024 to £7.6 million in response to an increase in civil claims for police misconduct.
The investigation identified a number of recent high profile cases including that of Bhatt Murphy client Jennifer Edmunds who sued the force for breaching her human rights and false imprisonment after she was detained at a vigil for Sarah Everard in 2021.
Carolynn Gallwey, Partner at Bhatt Murphy spoke to the Financial Times about the experience of the victims of police misconduct represented by Bhatt Murphy: “There has been a tipping point in recent years, with many victims who previously would not have brought claims forward now feeling able to do so”.
Gallwey added that the increased use of footage from body worn cameras had helped encourage victims of police misconduct to bring a case: “Previously it was one word against another, but the introduction of body camera footage has exposed a level of misconduct that went unanswered before”.
Read the report in the Financial Times here.
