Review follows concerns raised at inquiry into fatal shooting of unarmed man in Cheshire

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A national review into the planning of firearms operations has been launched following concerns raised at an inquiry into the fatal shooting of an unarmed man.



A police-led taskforce, which formed in August, is examining how intelligence is collected and managed during pre-planned armed operations in England and Wales.

The working group of senior officers was established following concerns raised last year at the public inquiry into the police shooting of Anthony Grainger.

Grainger was shot dead by a Greater Manchester police (GMP) marksman through the windscreen of an Audi in a car park in Culcheth, Cheshire, on 3 March 2012.

The 36-year-old, who was unarmed, was under observation amid suspicions he was part of a gang planning armed robberies.

However a public inquiry at Liverpool crown court has heard that the decision to deploy armed officers was based on out-of-date intelligence. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) identified 16 failings by GMP before the shooting.

The inquiry judge, Thomas Teague QC, is expected to publish his final report into the shooting later this year and GMP is braced for strong criticism.

At a hearing on Thursday, two senior GMP officers told the inquiry that the force’s practices were being updated following concerns raised at the inquiry.

Detective chief constable Anthony Creely, of GMP, said he was leading a “working group” of senior officers carrying out a national review of how similar armed investigations are managed.

Creely, who runs the north-west organised crime unit Titan, said he was asked by GMP’s assistant chief constable, Vanessa Jardin, to lead the review alongside assistant chief constable Alan Barr of Merseyside police.

He added: “When we had the sit-down and we looked at the issues coming out of the public inquiry and how we were interpreting them ... we said it was wider than GMP, it goes wider than regional and national.”

Creely said the review had identified areas for improvement that could be brought in “before the summertime” and others that needed to be signed off by police leads at the National Police Chiefs Council.

Judge Teague is planning to make a series of recommendations to GMP, and possibly other forces in England and Wales, about pre-planned firearms operations in his report to the home secretary, Amber Rudd.



In a call for evidence in November – and in what some saw as an indication of the judge’s possible future recommendations – Teague asked forces whether any national reviews had been undertaken following the fatal police shootings of Mark Duggan in 2011 and Azelle Rodney in 2005.

The judge has also asked for guidance about whether there are national policies for the use of body-worn video, or the recording of radio communications, for firearms officers on armed operations.

Two other senior GMP officers, assistant chief constable Steve Heywood, who authorised the operation in which Grainger died, and Det Ch Insp Robert Cousen, are being investigated by the IOPC for alleged gross misconduct over evidence given to the inquiry.



ACC Heywood has admitted there were “some flaws” in his record-keeping and “apologised unreservedly” for them but he strongly denied deliberately misleading the inquiry.