Police in other rich countries are much more circumspect about their allegations, not least to avoid prejudicing the outcome of a trial. Of course, this can often lead to stonewalling where little or no information is released at all, but in most jurisdictions police killings are rare and subject to correspondingly greater levels of public scrutiny.

In my view, false information put out by police should be prosecuted as strict liability obstruction of justice, whether misinformation (accidental or negligent falsehood) or disinformation (deliberate untruth). Where the latter is established, liability must include the chain of command and should be prosecuted on a conspiracy basis.