The People’s Tribunal on Police Killings: Families take justice into their own hands

15th April 2025 shoreditchadmin2 Anti-racism, Slider 0

By Zuri Omer

Earlier this month, over 100 bereaved families gathered in London for the first-ever People’s Tribunal on Police Killings (PTPK). Held on 5 and 6 April 2025 at Regent’s University, the event marked a major moment in the long struggle against state violence. It brought together decades of evidence, grief and grassroots organising in an effort not only to expose police killings but to pursue justice on the terms of the people affected.

The tribunal was organised by families of people who died following police contact, supported by the United Families & Friends Campaign, Migrant Media, 4WardEverUK, and Black Lives Matter UK. It was developed as both a political and legal intervention, challenging a system that has consistently failed to deliver justice.

The PTPK says that since 1969, over 3,000 people have died after police contact in the UK. In that time, there have been only four successful prosecutions of police officers. This conviction rate is one of the lowest in the world. The tribunal was set up in response to this shocking record, and to the increasing rate of police killings in recent decades.

The PTPK focused on five core themes, identified through the lived experiences of affected families: terror, torture, collusion, cover-up, and resistance. These are not abstract terms. They describe patterns of state behaviour, including the denial of medical care, the falsification of evidence, the harassment of families, and the failure of institutions to act.

The tribunal called on the public to reject the inquest system, which has never led to the conviction of a police officer; to reject government inquiries, which consume public money but produce no structural change; to reject euphemistic terms like “deaths in custody”, insisting these are police killings; to accept the evidence, including video footage and eyewitness testimony, which the state continues to suppress; and to demand the application of existing criminal law to police officers, rather than rely on new legislation or training initiatives.

A major development announced during the tribunal was the formation of a class action lawsuit brought by more than 100 families in what would be the first coordinated legal action of its kind in the UK against police forces and relevant state bodies. The lawsuit will seek to reopen and reinvestigate thousands of police-related deaths. These reinvestigations will be led by international lawyers, activists and academics, reflecting the tribunal’s rejection of state institutions in favour of people-powered processes.

The PTPK was designed from the outset to be international in both scope and impact. The tribunal panel included people from Brazil, Palestine and Northern Ireland, drawing parallels between police killings in the UK and state violence elsewhere. This was not symbolic. The tribunal rooted its analysis in the colonial and imperial nature of British policing. From Bloody Sunday to Gaza, from Black deaths in police vans to the export of crowd control weapons, British state violence was framed as part of a global network of repression. The organisers were clear that British policing is not just racist but colonial in its DNA.

The tribunal explicitly rejected the idea that justice would be achieved through liberal reform. Instead, it framed its work as a revolutionary act, drawing strength from the shared histories of resistance among oppressed people around the world.

The tribunal is just the beginning. Organisers outlined a 10-year programme of legal, political and cultural action aimed at confronting police violence and building a movement capable of delivering justice. This plan includes:

  • Reinvestigation of historic cases by international legal teams
  • Support for families to conduct their own evidence gathering
  • Public documentation and archiving of police killings
  • International solidarity with movements against state violence
  • Collective legal challenges including the class action lawsuit

The tribunal ended with a call for mass public involvement. People were invited not just to watch, but to participate.

You can watch the full proceedings of the People’s Tribunal here:

To support the ongoing work of the tribunal or learn more, visit:
https://peoples-tribunal.org