IOPC decision on disciplinary proceedings regarding fatal police shooting of Chris Kaba

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) can confirm that the Met officer who fatally shot Chris Kaba will no longer face disciplinary proceedings.

In January, we made the decision to pause the serving of gross misconduct papers on Sergeant Martyn Blake until the law change relating to the use of force test in police misconduct cases came into effect and its impact was clear.

On 30 June the use of force test in such cases changed from the civil law test to the criminal law test.

We issued a policy position last month which outlined that, in order to apply the law in the most fair and proportionate way, in current IOPC cases where case to answer decisions were made using the civil law test, disciplinary action was no longer justified and proceedings should be withdrawn unless there were exceptional circumstances.

This would prevent any unfairness that would occur if officers faced potential dismissal for misconduct, which if it occurred now, would not amount to misconduct under the new law.

We shared our policy decision with representatives for Chris Kaba’s family, Sergeant Blake and the Met, to seek their views before confirming whether disciplinary proceedings would be withdrawn in this case.

We carefully considered their representations and have decided there are no exceptional circumstances in this case that would justify changing from this position and therefore disciplinary proceedings will be withdrawn.

IOPC Director of Engagement Amanda Rowe said: “Our thoughts remain with Chris Kaba’s family and friends and everyone impacted by his death.

“We are acutely aware of the impact of proceedings for everyone involved in this case and have always sought to avoid any unnecessary delays, however it was right that we paused progressing disciplinary proceedings until the legislation change came into effect and its impact was clear.

“Having considered both our policy and the representations from the Kaba family and Sergeant Blake, we have today notified them of our decision to withdraw disciplinary proceedings.”

We have also notified HM Coroner of this decision, who had paused consideration of whether to re-open the inquest while disciplinary matters remained outstanding.