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Dcc simon chersterman

Most countries do have a fully armed Police Service and history What is your view on interviewing officers
suggests that their ability to intervene in active shooters etc is no post shooting?
better than ours. I know why you have asked me this question as it is very topical
Unless the threat dramatically changes, I would rather we at the moment, I have recently spent time debating the issues with
continued to invest this capability in an appropriate number of some eminent Queen’s Counsel and I have been invited to sit on a
carefully selected and highly trained professionals. working group to resolve the issue.
Rather than duck the question, I refer you to my previous
do you think Firearms Officers are answer and would add that if the officers
treated fairly following an Officer i have a strong are suspected of criminal offences and/
involved Shooting? or misconduct then the position is clear:
For every Firearms Officer who feels that they sense of justice they can be cautioned or put on notice
have been treated unfairly, there is a family and interviewed.
Things become more complicated where, as
shooting there has to be a thorough, open and pride in an in the majority of cases, the officers are purely
who has been bereaved. Following a police
and transparent investigation to establish the witnesses. I suspect that in some circumstances
facts and Firearms Officers know that they are organisation they could be ordered to attend an interview
individually accountable in law for the force and answer questions; however, I can not
that they use. Anyone who struggles with that stands up foresee any circumstances under which a
this concept should not be a Firearms Officer. lawful order will ever trump an individual’s
However it also has to be said that this is their for vulnerable right not to answer questions that could
job. The service selects, trains and pays them to incriminate them.
carry a firearm, meaning that we shouldn’t be members of The focus should remain on the requirement
surprised when on rare occasions (actually in for a thorough, open and transparent
0.00017%% of firearms deployments) shots are society investigation. It is in everyone’s interest that the
discharged. A police shooting will always be a officers should provide as much detail about
critical incident which could undermine public the incident as possible; personally I believe
confidence in the Police Service and I believe Chapter 7 achieves this.
that the guidance set out in Chapter 7 of the Manual achieves this
delicate balance between the requirements of the investigation and What interest do you have outside ‘the job’?
the welfare of the officers. My family. My wife is in the job, I have a 24 year old son who is
To give you a straight answer to your question, we don’t doing his doctorate at Nimes University in France, a 22 year old
always get the balance right. The key is absolute clarity from the daughter at Liverpool University and two further daughters aged
investigating authority on the status of the officers, unless there is 15 and 12. They keep me busy. I also run and go spinning (studio
evidence to the contrary, they are witnesses and should be treated cycling) and I am a novice fly fisherman, I will probably remain a
as such. novice for sometime as I don’t get to go very often ■