Page 21 - Top Cover Issue 6

TOP COVER ISSUE 6 21

WAITING FOR THE VERDICT

ny experienced police officer knows the feeling of team were elsewhere and accompanied by other senior officers
waiting for a jury to return a verdict. The months or years from the department. I intended, as far as we could manage,
of case preparation, legal arguments and the ebb and for all officers to be together to hear the result simultaneously. I
flow of proceedings as the evidence unfolds in court. As the jury wanted the team to hear accurate facts and to be engaged and
retire to consider their verdict all that has gone before begins to supported by their seniors. Why was this important? Well, these
fade and what’s left is the interminable wait as hours turn into officers had family and friends who had lived with the case and
days. endured their own strain - what sort of outfit would we be if we
A jury’s decision on the 8th January 2014 will sit in my memory for simply left them to pick up from the media the outcome with
a long time. As the temporary OCU Commander of the Specialist the predictably different and sometimes distorted versions of
Firearms Command I waited with an officer known as V53 and the facts?
a small group of colleagues for the verdict in the Mark Duggan Beyond the immediate personnel concerned the other priority
Inquest. The symbolism and significance of this case carried was to communicate with all my officers who were out across
far beyond the office and, rightly or wrongly, it will forever be London, in ARVs and on covert operations. I made a point of
associated with the disorder that followed the original incident. briefing each group personally and in conjunction with other
For those in my office on that day all the rhetoric and opinion members of the Senior Leadership Team. We explained the
mattered for very little. It may sound strange, given the glare of outcome and the media briefing given by our Chief Officers. I
publicity and justifiable public interest, but that moment was knew that we would not find all of our press releases being fully
very much a quiet and private matter. No officer ever wants reported and I wanted frontline officers to be crystal clear about
to find themselves facing a potential “unlawful killing” verdict the Met’s position. I judged that we should be very active in
yet this was V53’s position and something that all firearms keeping our people informed of what was happening and not
officers have to contemplate before taking on the job. We were allow them to rely on external news media. I remained in close
convinced the original operation was justified as was V53’s contact with Chief Officers - so there was a very effective two-
decision to open fire. But would the jury see it that way? And way flow of information which worked well. It was interesting
if they didn’t what would happen to him then? No matter how that as the night duty teams came in and they had already been
sure we were of our case the simple truth was that we didn’t fed a media diet to inform their understanding that some had
know what the outcome would be. a slightly different perspective to those we were able to see
The anticipated announcement of the verdict at 3.30pm was before.
delayed owing to some minor problems in court. Whilst everyone This is just a personal account of a key moment for my
was calm there was a nervous apprehension and people drew department - elsewhere across the MPS colleagues were
strength from each other. It weighed heavily on me the need engaging with the community and preparing to face whatever
to maintain a balanced atmosphere and set the right tone. Too challenges the aftermath would pose. At the end of a long day
pensive and it would increase the tension but equally it wasn’t we all knew that we hadn’t heard the last of the case and lest
the time for clumsy attempts to lighten the mood either. As the anyone think otherwise we always look to learn and improve our
verdict decisions started to filter through the relief was palpable. ability to protect the public. I was reminded of the famous Bible
There certainly wasn’t any celebration or triumphalism, simply verse: “do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry
relief accompanied by a release of emotion and yes some tears about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” At that
too. moment the lawful killing verdict was enough for one day.
One of the unfortunate side effects of anonymity is that it
depersonalises the reporting of the people behind codes such
as “V53”. I make no criticism of the media for this, it is inevitable.
But the absence of an identity renders it easy for some to overlay
their own perceptions of who they believe the person behind
the cipher to be. In a sense anonymised officers become almost
one dimensional stereotypical caricatures. The reality, in my
experience, is that they are possessed with the same levels of WRITTEN BY BRIAN DILLON
humanity and sensitivity as everyone else. In my view it takes
a special kind of person to be a police officer and even more
so to be a firearms officer; whilst the physical risks are obvious
the implications for their own liberty with the attendant life
changing impact is really quite profound. Little wonder then
that the verdict struck a nerve or two.
Whilst I was with V53 I had made arrangements that the rest of the