Fifty policing and law-enforcement leaders from across the United Kingdom have urged Prime Minister Andy Burnham to use ‘every lawful option’ to prevent two of the men convicted of killing PC Andrew Harper from being released earlier than originally expected.
The open letter, coordinated by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, represents an unusually broad intervention from senior policing figures. Its signatories include Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Stephen Watson, Police Scotland Chief Constable Jo Farrell and National Crime Agency director general Graeme Biggar.
The police leaders welcomed Burnham’s instruction to Justice Secretary Alex Norris to investigate what can legally be done. However, they warned that the controversy raises much wider questions about public safety, the meaning of sentences and the treatment of victims when release rules are subsequently changed.
‘When the state asks people to run towards danger on behalf of the public, they should be able to trust that the justice system will stand behind them when the worst happens.’
Police leaders make three demands
The letter asks the Government to take three specific measures.
- Examine every lawful option for preventing the earlier release of those responsible for PC Harper’s death.
- Create an additional public-protection safeguard covering the most serious offenders whenever release arrangements are changed in future.
- Ensure victims and bereaved families are properly considered before significant changes are made to sentencing or release policy.
The proposed safeguard would not be restricted to attacks on police officers. The chiefs said it should cover offenders who have caused a death, committed exceptionally serious violence or present a continuing danger to individuals or communities.
They specifically included serious violence against women and girls, stalking and harassment among the offences for which continuing risks should be considered.
‘We are collectively concerned that an approach to early release which does not sufficiently distinguish the most serious offending risks undermining public safety, victim confidence and wider confidence in the criminal justice system.’
The letter stressed that its authors were not suggesting the grief of a police family was greater than that experienced by other bereaved families, or that the life of an emergency worker had greater value. Their concern, they said, extended to every victim affected by changes involving serious offenders.
Why Cole and Bowers could leave prison sooner
PC Harper, 28, died in August 2019 after becoming caught in a strap attached to a car as three teenagers fled the theft of a quad bike in Berkshire.
Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole were each convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment in 2020. Under the release arrangements applying when they were sentenced, they were expected to serve two-thirds of their custodial terms.
Changes introduced by the Sentencing Act 2026 would instead make them eligible for release at the halfway point. Reports indicate that this could allow both men to leave prison in January 2027, subject to licence conditions for the remainder of their sentences.
Henry Long, the driver of the vehicle, received a 16-year sentence and is not expected to benefit from the same change.
The Government revised its plans after widespread criticism, excluding sentences for rape, serious child sexual offences and specified grooming offences. Manslaughter was not added to those exclusions, leaving Bowers and Cole eligible.
Lissie Harper subsequently accused the Government of an ‘utter betrayal’, while Thames Valley Police issued its own public condemnation.
Burnham now says he is ‘increasingly confident’
The police chiefs’ intervention follows a marked change in the Prime Minister’s language.
Burnham previously said he had pushed to ‘the very limits of what is possible’ and argued that broader exemptions would risk the prison estate reaching capacity and potentially collapsing within months.
He has now instructed Norris to accelerate work intended to create additional headroom in the prison system and says he is ‘increasingly confident’ that more serious offenders can remain in custody.
Options being examined include returning foreign national offenders more quickly, reviewing prisoners serving discredited Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences and converting parts of the women’s prison estate for use by male prisoners.
Burnham said he did not want to see any prisoner released prematurely and was turning over ‘every stone’ to find another solution.
The new position is not yet a confirmed exemption. No legislative amendment or completed capacity plan preventing the release of Cole and Bowers has been announced. PC Harper’s mother, Debbie Adlam, said that nothing had yet been secured and that the family remained waiting for a firm outcome.
Why the Government cannot simply name two prisoners
Ministers cannot normally rewrite release rules solely to identify and disadvantage particular named individuals. The Government would need a lawful, objectively defined category or sufficient additional prison capacity to keep a wider group of serious offenders in custody.
One suggestion from Thames Valley policing leaders is an exemption covering manslaughter where an emergency worker was killed while performing their duties. Any proposal would need careful legal drafting and assessment of its effect on the prison population.
A broader exemption for every manslaughter conviction would affect considerably more prisoners. Officials have reportedly warned that retaining a larger group for longer could exhaust the space created by other measures and require further emergency releases in the future.
Harper’s Law cannot be applied retrospectively
Following her husband’s death, Lissie Harper successfully campaigned for what became known as Harper’s Law. It introduced mandatory life sentences in specified circumstances where an emergency worker is unlawfully killed while responding to a crime.
The law applies to relevant sentences imposed after it came into force. It cannot retrospectively replace the sentences handed to Bowers and Cole in 2020.
The police chiefs acknowledged that legal limitation but said the principle underpinning Harper’s Law remained important: emergency workers should know that the justice system recognises the risks they take while protecting the public.
Pressure spreads across the justice system
The letter arrives while the Government faces pressure from several directions over its response to prison overcrowding.
Police representatives have already considered legal action over the proposed releases, while probation union Napo has reported overwhelming support for potential industrial action in an indicative ballot about workloads and staffing.
Probation staff would be responsible for supervising many offenders released into the community. The union argues that excessive caseloads can prevent professionals from making the careful decisions required to protect victims and the wider public.
The Government maintains that urgent action is necessary because prisons are dangerously close to capacity. Its critics increasingly accept the existence of that crisis while challenging which offenders should bear the consequences of measures designed to address it.
A defining test for Burnham
Burnham’s renewed intervention has given PC Harper’s family greater grounds for hope, but it has not yet changed the legal position facing Cole and Bowers.
The united message from 50 policing leaders makes this more than a dispute about two sentences. It asks whether victims can rely upon the custodial periods explained in court and whether future emergency measures will distinguish sufficiently between lower-risk prisoners and those responsible for the gravest offences.
The immediate test is now straightforward: whether the Justice Secretary can produce a lawful and workable plan before Cole and Bowers become eligible for release.
Sources
- National Police Chiefs’ Council: open letter and full list of signatories
- ITV News: police chiefs’ intervention and Government response
- Thames Valley Police: statement on the proposed early releases
- House of Commons Library: changes to automatic prisoner release dates
- Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022: Harper’s Law provision