Met criticised over surveillance

The study by a scrutiny panel from the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA)- effectively the Metropolitan Police's board of governors - contains other criticisms and will increase the pressure on Commissioner Sir Ian Blair ahead of the inquest into the death of the Brazilian, which starts in September.

The 27-year-old electrician was gunned down at close range in a Tube carriage at Stockwell station in south London on July 22, 2005. Police had mistaken him for failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman, part of the gang which tried to blow up passengers on Tube trains across the capital the previous day.

The force was later convicted on a general health and safety count at the Old Bailey last November.

The MPA said the purpose of its report was to reassure itself and Londoners that the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) had responded appropriately to recommendations made by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

It said there were still a number of unanswered questions, and it could not be right that, three years later, there was still no definitive account of what happened that day. "The delay inherent in the current system impacts negatively on the interests of Londoners - in terms of public reassurance and in confidence in policing."

The Met had made substantial progress, but more needed to be done. Gaps in technology needed to be addressed and the Airwave radio system needed to be rolled out fully, especially on the Tube system. And it was not clear to the panel why the firearms team (CO19) was not deployed sooner to support the surveillance team, and a further assessment would be required following the inquest.

Meanwhile, progress on improving surveillance procedures had been too slow. Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary was concerned about the length of time being taken to agree "technological support mechanisms" and also fundamental differences in ethos between the "crime" and "counter-terrorism" surveillance teams, the report said.

It pointed out that the practices used to produce police notes following an operation, in particular a firearms incident, attracted considerable criticism in the IPCC investigation.

The report points out that many of the issues that faced the MPS in July 2005 - in particular "command stretch" and adequacy of control rooms for the command and control of operations, were likely to present themselves again at the Olympics in 2012, if not before, "and potentially on a far larger scale".