Inside The People’s Tribunal on Police Killings (by Red Pepper Media)
image credit: United Families & Friends
www.uffcampaign.org
source: Red Pepper Media | first published: 13 January 2026
The friends and families of those who ‘died in custody’ in the UK, frustrated with the inability of reform to deliver justice, have established the People’s Tribunal on Police Killings. Bringing together over twenty families for a class action lawsuit against the police, it will be the first time families have initiated a group prosecution.
The tribunal renames these deaths ‘killings’, due to the systematic nature of the cases. They told me: "we need no more legislation, no more excuses, no more police training. The criminal law needs to be applied to police officers… we are abolitionist in our approach but in the meantime cops that kill should go to jail."
The conversation centers around the People's Tribunal on police killings, scheduled for April 5th and 6th in London. Ken Fero and Samantha Patterson discuss the historical context of police killings in the UK, the personal impact on families, and the need for a tribunal as an alternative to the traditional justice system.
It is an anti-reformist position combined with a practical demand for justice. In line with this, the group is critical of various efforts to change the police through government reviews, inquests and improvements to police watchdogs, such as the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). Reforms to these institutions got them no closer to prosecutions, and often diverted them from justice.
The problem with reform
This problem came into focus after an internal report was released by the Metropolitan Police – ‘30 Patterns of Harm’. It argued racism was ‘built in’ the Metropolitan Police, which the police responded by promising to establish a government review followed by a process of reform.
The changes proposed by reviews like these are treated with extreme scepticism by the tribunal. One of the key members of the tribunal is Samantha Patterson, whose brother Jason McPherson ‘died’ on 18 January 2007.
