HMIC placed West Midlands police in “Engage”, known colloquially as special measures, after an inspection. It will be seen as a sign of the crisis gripping policing. A fatal police shooting is rare. The officers involved in this matter are being supported as they assist the IOPC investigation.” When I joined WMP … I recognised there needed to be a significant improvement in the force’s performance, the number of offenders brought to justice and the service we provide to local communities. West Midlands joins four other forces in special measures, including the country’s biggest, the Metropolitan police. The other forces judged to be failing and of concern are Devon and Cornwall, Staffordshire and Wiltshire.

A police cordon was set up around the Irish parliament building, Leinster House, and officers from the Garda Mounted Support Unit were in nearby Grafton Street. The incident happened at about 1.30pm on Thursday outside a school, Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire. Police said a five-year-old girl, a woman in her 30s and a man in his 50s sustained serious injuries. The girl was receiving emergency medical treatment. A five-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl were treated for less severe injuries. The boy was discharged from hospital.It’s our responsibility to make sure that we police the streets, and part of that is we ask people to act responsibly and not to listen to the misinformation and rumour that is circulating on social media,” he said. “The facts are being established, but the facts are still not clear on a lot of the rumour and the innuendo is being spread for malevolent purposes.” Met assistant commissioner Matt Twist said: “Our thoughts remain with the loved ones of the man who has died, with the local community in Dagenham and the officers involved in this incident.

Our arrest rate has increased by a third, as has the number of offenders brought to justice. This continues to improve each month.

You could work

The Irish justice minister, Helen McEntee, labelled the scenes “intolerable” and said a “thuggish and manipulative element must not be allowed to use an appalling tragedy to wreak havoc”. The home secretary, James Cleverly, blamed “a failure of leadership” from Labour’s police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands. Police attempted to engage with the individual before two shots were fired by an officer just before 9pm after he left the property he had called from, the Met said. Wendy Williams, from HMIC, said: “We move police forces into our enhanced level of monitoring, known as ‘Engage’, when a force is not responding to our concerns, or if it is not managing, mitigating or eradicating these concerns. Simon Foster, the PCC, said the force had been hit hard by government cuts. It still has 800 fewer officers compared with before the Conservative government slashed police numbers. The big urban forces rely more on central government funding than more rural counterparts.