Police who tweeted a Top Gun gif to celebrate identifying a woman’s dead body are now being scrutinised by another force after a police watchdog report criticised the investigation into her death.
The review by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) suggested that detectives at Kent Police did not properly collect, record or evaluate all the information before concluding that the death of Azra Kemal was not suspicious.
Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Professional Standards Department is now reviewing the investigation.
It’s four years since the 24-year-old died in July 2020 after falling from a dual carriageway bridge over the Medway River on the A21 in Kent. Her car had broken down nearby and caught fire. She was travelling back to London with a male friend.
In a tweet, posted on the day Azra died, Kent police congratulated its crime scene officers on the speed of their work by using a GIF from the movie Top Gun, where characters Maverick and Goose high-five.
This celebration was over the fact that they “identified the deceased person within about 90 minutes of being at the scene”.
The report from the police watchdog pointed out that this message could heighten concerns “that the force were in a hurry to complete their investigations”.
Read more: Remembering ‘phenomenal’ Azra Kemal
After discovering the tweet, Azra’s mother, Nevres Kemal, told Sky News it was “just horrendous”. She had already filed a complaint into areas where she felt her daughter’s death had not been properly investigated.
Her complaint stated that “procedures were not followed, evidence not captured, details of a witness were not followed up”.
It is suggested that “presumptions were made” about Azra’s character and the only suspect in a potential murder investigation was released as a witness before his account was properly scrutinised, and other evidence such as forensics and witness statements were obtained.
The IOPC report published at the end of last year stated: “Having reviewed the review grounds and all the background papers, I agree with your concerns.”
The report author said that the investigating officer “took risks” by releasing the suspect as a witness within 24 hours of Azra’s death, but “did not rationalise” why he’d done so in his notes “when largely relying on the evidence provided by the suspect”.
They added, “In my opinion, I do not feel that all available information had been collected, recorded and thoroughly evaluated prior to making a decision… and therefore the service level here is not acceptable.”
This decision to release the suspect led to another decision not to conduct a full forensic post-mortem on Azra’s body to look for further evidence of anything suspicious happening prior to her fall. This is also criticised in the report.
Azra’s mother, who is being supported by the Centre For Women’s Justice, wants police to re-open the investigation into Azra’s death.
Ms Kemal says: “Kent Police decided that Azra’s life wasn’t worth anything, so they failed to look at evidence and investigate her death because they decided not to.”
She added: “Everybody in this country deserves their loved ones’ deaths to be investigated correctly according to the law. Nobody is above the law – especially the police. As long as I breathe, I will pursue the people that failed my child.”
Initially, a review into Kent Police’s investigation by Essex Police had found it to be “acceptable,” but this new IOPC report, seen by Sky News, found that that investigation “was not reasonable and proportionate”.
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Making reference to the Top Gun tweet, the IOPC report author tells the complainant, “It appeared to you that the force went public with the fact that they were pleased with a quick resolution in this incident; I understand that a complaint has been made about the content of tweets published by the force shortly after the incident.
“Although it is not appropriate for me to go into the detail of those tweets given the ongoing complaint, I make reference to them as I can see that this would only heighten your concerns that the force were in a hurry to complete their investigations, and that they were not thorough in their analysis and consideration of evidence.”
Kent Police told Sky News it is “assisting an independent review of the investigation into the death of Azra Kemal, on 16 July 2020. It would be inappropriate to comment further until any outcomes from the review have been established.”
The complaints are now being re-investigated independently by the Professional Standards Department in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire.