Met officer sacked for not investigating firearms incident

A former Met Police officer would have been sacked had he not already left the force, a disciplinary panel has decided.

It followed our investigation into the now ex-PC Lee Barrow, who failed to fully investigate an alleged firearms incident.

The Met made a mandatory referral to the IOPC after an incident on 15 December 2022, where two officers responded to the report of a shooting at an address in Colindale, NW9, called in by a woman and her partner. They were both unhurt.

Approximately 40 minutes later, and nearly half a mile away, a person was injured in a firearms incident connected to this case.

We investigated the actions and decision making of PC Barrow, following the reporting of concerns by the woman and her partner; the call handling of the incident including decisions regarding sending local units, rather than providing a firearms response; whether the race or disability of the couple had any bearing on the actions of the officers, including how they conducted a search and carried out checks.

In April 2024 we directed that the Met hold a gross misconduct hearing for the former officer to face allegations that he had failed to adequately investigate the case and breached the police professional standards of behaviour relating to honesty and integrity; duties and responsibilities; and authority, respect and courtesy.

On Friday 18 July, a disciplinary panel found the case proven and Mr Barrow would have been dismissed with immediate effect had he not already left the force. An allegation of a breach of the standards of equality and diversity was found not proven.

IOPC director Amanda Rowe said: “This officer knew he was dealing with vulnerable people and a potentially serious crime but failed to treat the information he was given with any degree of professionalism. He felt the incident was a waste of his time.

“He chose not to carry out the tasks that he should have known were required, and generally did not treat the situation with the seriousness it deserved.

“He showed a complete lack of empathy to the couple who made the report. They were left scared and vulnerable and this experience would have damaged their confidence in the police going forward.”

As part of our investigation, investigators obtained officers’ body worn footage, radio transmissions of the calls between the control room and officers, 999 call recordings, call logs, crime reports and statements. Two officers were served with criminal letters and misconduct regulation notices (gross misconduct) and interviewed under caution. The second officer was found to have no case to answer.

We also found areas for potential for learning, which the Met has accepted, regarding:

·       Its procedures in relation to spontaneous incidents that are passed to the Armed Response Vehicle pod to assess whether a firearms response is needed, to ensure that Tactical Firearms Commanders (TFC) record a rationale on the incident log in situations where they decide not to deploy firearms officers

·       Its processes to ensure that there is appropriate oversight of incidents which have been assessed by a Tactical Firearms Commander, due to an indication that firearms may have been seen or involved, but not declared as a firearms incident.