Scotland Yard chief Sir Mark Rowley wants sweeping exemptions from prosecution for officers involved in shootings and other deaths after a “hero” marksman was cleared of murdering gangster Chris Kaba.
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner is lobbying for reform in response to the decision to bring criminal charges against Sergeant Martyn Blake.
He is among policing leaders to have called the current accountability system “broken” and expressed concerns it might lead to a loss of morale among firearms officers.
Yvette Cooper is expected to make a Commons statement on Wednesday.
The Home Secretary will revive and complete a probe into how armed officers who take fatal shots in the line of duty are held to account.
A jury took a little over three hours on Monday to clear Mr Blake of the murder of drill rapper Kaba, 24, who had gunned down a rival six days before he was killed by police in September 2022.
Kaba, nicknamed Mad Itch, was a core member of the feared Brixton Hill-based 67 gang.
He would have stood trial for attempted murder before his death having gunned down Brandon Malutshi, a key figure in the 17 gang, after spotting him at the Oval Space nightclub in Hackney, north London, early on August 30.
Footage shows him firing the gun in the crowded club and again taking aim at his victim outside, before Malutshi collapses to the ground.
There was also “strong evidence” he took part in a drive-by shotgun attack near a school in Brixton, the night before he was killed by Mr Blake.
Kaba was shot him through the windscreen of an Audi Q8 as he tried to ram his way past police cars.
Mr Blake is still likely to face gross misconduct proceedings that could end in dismissal.
Firearms officers complain they are not properly supported while doing a difficult and dangerous job.
Rowley wants officers to be exempt from criminal charges over fatal shootings and other incidents unless prosecutors can show they “deliberately departed” from their training and a change to the threshold at which they are investigated for misconduct over use of force.
Insiders believe this would protect officers such as Mr Blake, who said he feared Kaba would use his Audi to kill his colleagues, and was never accused of veering from training.
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Former Met Commissioner Lord Hogan-Howe called for changes to give firearms officers who take fatal shots “the benefit of the doubt”.
In an urgent question in the House of Lords on Tuesday, the independent crossbench peer said: “It does seem as though the system doesn’t give (officers) the benefit of doubt that was given by the jury in this case.
“I do wonder if the minister will consider how the legal system can give the benefit of the doubt to these brave men and women who on our behalf in a matter of a fraction of a second have to make the most awful decision.”
However, human rights barrister Abimbola Johnson said it “doesn’t make sense” to use the case of Mr Blake to make legal changes to the accountability of firearms officers.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think that there is a risk of using this case as some sort of paradigm or archetype therefore to base the legal system around.
“There are a couple of things which I think are really important. It’s already extremely rare for us to see police officers being prosecuted under the criminal justice system for action that they have conducted whilst in the line of duty, so the idea that because Martyn Blake was brought to court for this matter, that we should therefore change the legal system is misleading.
“This is a matter that went all the way through the trial process and was allowed to remain before the jury until they drew their verdict, they reached their verdict.
“So I would be very hesitant to use this as the case to assert that there should be legal changes, and it’s really important to ensure that the public can have faith in the police as a profession and also in the legal system.”
