Reaction To The Shooting
The manner of the killing was such a departure from previous police practice that observers speculated that it had been carried out by military special forces. Most commentators agreed that the authorities must have been certain of an imminent threat to order such drastic action. After the police admitted that they had shot an innocent man, the Operation Kratos policies came to national and international attention, with some commentators decrying the policies as unnecessarily violent and ineffective, and others supporting the difficult decisions made by the police in fighting terrorism.
An Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) report identified a series of errors on the part of police, and recommended a number of changes. No individual officers were charged, but the Metropolitan Police were later found guilty of breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and fined. The inquest into the death of de Menezes made further criticisms of the police, and returned an open verdict.
ACPO reviewed Operation Kratos in March 2006 and declared it still "fit for purpose". The Met made changes to the command structure of Operation Kratos after the shooting. In future, authorisation of a critical shot would be communicated by a clear English phrase rather than codewords. Authorisation would still come from specially trained officers of Commander rank or higher, but these would now be called Extreme Threat Tactical Commanders rather than DSOs. Despite the high rank of this officer, they would not command the whole operation, but would monitor the operation and take over tactical command when a threat of suicide bombing became apparent. The number of such officers in the Met would be reduced to 12, and they would receive more intensive training. The term Operation Kratos was dropped at the beginning of 2008.
Read more about this topic: Operation Kratos
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