IPCC decision on Stockwell shooting discipline
No disciplinary action will be taken against four senior Metropolitan Police Service officers as a result of the fatal shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes. All disciplinary reviews have now been concluded.
The four senior officers are Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick and three officers identified as Silver, Trojan 84 and Trojan 80.
Independent Police Complaints Commission chair Nick Hardwick took the decision after considering the views of the Metropolitan Police Service, the Metropolitan Police Authority and the solicitor for the family of Jean Charles de Menezes.
The health and safety trial verdict made it clear that mistakes were made that could have been avoided. The issue considered by the IPCC was whether those mistakes amounted to personal misconduct.
Planning and management were central to Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dick's responsibilities on that day. The IPCC considered whether DAC Dick was responsible for failures in the planning or management of the operation that amounted to a disciplinary offence and which led to the conviction of the Office of the Commissioner for the Metropolis. The trial jury's response to this, having considered all the evidence, in their rider was unequivocal – in reaching their verdict they attached "no personal culpability to Commander Dick."
The IPCC cannot foresee any circumstances in which new evidence might emerge which would cause any disciplinary tribunal to disregard the jury's rider.
The responsibilities of DAC Dick and Silver, Trojan 84 and Trojan 80 were intertwined. The IPCC cannot see how any disciplinary tribunal could conclude that although no personal blame is attached to DAC Dick, it could attach to the other three officers.
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Notes for editors
The Metropolitan Police Authority announced that it was not recommending any disciplinary action against DAC Dick when the IPCC published its full report of the Stockwell One investigation on 8 November (PR 1005.) The IPCC received the Metropolitan Police Service's final memorandum (dated 19 November) with its recommendations about discipline regarding Silver, Trojan 80 and Trojan 84 on 23 November. Nick Hardwick wrote to the lawyer for the family of Jean Charles De Menezes on 7 December seeking their views.
The IPCC has sent separate letters, setting out the reasons in full, to the MPS, MPA and the family's lawyer.
Silver and Trojans 80 and 84 were the pseudonyms adopted throughout the Old Bailey trial in October.
On 11 May 2007 the IPCC announced that 11 other officers would not face disciplinary action - see IPCC press release PR808.
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