Council reaffirms vow to ‘help rebuild trust’ in communities ‘most affected by racism in policing’ as Child X officers cleared

A patrolling officer believed the blue and white water pistol could have been a live firearm, the police watchdog said. Photograph: IOPC

Hackney Council says it is working to build bridges between police and the community, after officers in the borough who ‘brutalised’ a black 13-year-old boy holding a water pistol were cleared over racism allegations.

Last July, the boy known as ‘Child X’ was “rammed” off his bike by a police van, surrounded and handcuffed by firearms officers after one mistook his squirter gun for a real weapon.

Following an investigation, last week the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) concluded these actions were “reasonable in the circumstances”.

Hackney’s community safety chief, Cllr Susan Fajana-Thomas, said: “We acknowledge the findings of the IOPC and the conclusion of the review into this awful incident.

“I know from direct conversations we have had with the child’s mother what a traumatic ordeal this has been for the family.”

Cllr Fajana-Thomas said Hackney Council is committed to supporting people in Hackney to hold the police accountable for their conduct in the borough.

“We have worked tirelessly for years to help bridge the gap between the police and the people of Hackney, ensuring communities most affected by racism in policing are at the forefront of that change.

“The council has also committed to ongoing and groundbreaking facilitation and leadership in the Hackney policing action plan — co-produced by the community, council and police — to help rebuild trust in the service locally.”

The anti-racist group Alliance for Police Accountability (APA) slammed the IOPC’s verdict which they say highlighted the “ongoing failure of oversight bodies to address systemic racial bias and disproportionate policing of black communities”.

They called on both Hackney Council and the Mayor of London to make sure all children subjected to the use of force during an arrest are referred to safeguarding agencies for trauma support, and that such incidents are “routinely monitored, documented, and publicly reported”.

The mother of Child X said the IOPC findings were “extremely disappointing”.

In a response statement released through lawyers, she said it was clear to her that her son would not have had the same experience if he were white.

“When the local commander James Conway met with me shortly after the incident, even he admitted that his son would not have been treated by the police in the same way.”

She said the IOPC had discriminated against her child and were guilty of “adultification” — a form of racial bias where children in minority groups are treated as older than they actually are.

The statement from law firm Bhatt Murphy added that the mother’s formal complaint about the actions of police involved in the incident was referred by the Metropolitian Police to the regulator on two separate occasions in 2023.

“On both occasions, the IOPC refused to take responsibility for any investigation of the matter, and only did so three months later, on 20 October 2023, after national press coverage of the incident finally compelled them to act.”

The solicitors last week stated that a copy of the regulator’s report into the matter has not been shared with the family.

Det Chief Supt James Conway previously apologised for the incident on behalf of the Met Police.

APA Chair, Lee Jasper, said: “This case exemplifies the failure of both the Metropolitan Police and the IOPC to protect black children and hold officers accountable for the harm they cause.

“A 13-year-old black boy playing with a water pistol was treated as an armed criminal, brutalised, and left traumatised.”

Jasper argues that impact on Child X and his family is a symptom of the service’s wider systemic problems.

“The Casey Review laid bare the institutional racism within the Metropolitan Police, but the IOPC continues to ignore this reality.

“Black communities are simply expected to suffer the realities of disproportionate policing, and are left alone to deal with the deep trauma that is a consequence of disproportionate use of force and the routine denials of racism,” he said.

The group says that since there is no mandatory referral system to safeguarding boards for incidents involving the arrest or use of force against children, it is planning to set up its own community safeguarding board in partnership with criminologists from the University of East London.