'Our daughter was killed by a speeding police car’

The parents of a woman knocked down and killed by a police car that had been travelling at 84mph seconds earlier say officers should be subject to a speed cap in built-up areas.

Shante Daniel-Folkes, 25, was hit by a car driven by PC Nadeem Patel in Brixton, south London, on 9 June 2021. She had let another police car pass by.

Janine Daniel said: "They shouldn't be going 84mph, that's just madness."

The Met Police called it a "tragedy" and said it had reviewed its training.

The force had been responding to a report of a man in Herne Hill acting erratically, throwing rubbish into the road and a woman running away from him when Ms Daniel-Folkes - who had a son who is now aged five with special needs - was killed.

Patel, 28, who had been driving at a top speed of 83.9mph on the night of the crash, was jailed for three years in February after admitting causing death by dangerous driving.

The car he was driving was travelling at about 55mph at the time of the collision after Patel braked for two seconds from a speed of more than 81mph. He has been sacked by the force.

Although his siren was activated, he had switched off his front emergency lights so not to affect PC Gary Thomson's vision in the lead vehicle.

Ms Daniel described being informed by police that her daughter had died as, "the worst night of my life".

She said: "I shut the door. I told them I didn't want to hear it. I could have died. I just couldn't stand up. I collapsed to my knees and with all the fibres in my being I let out a big scream and I couldn't stop.

"It was very hard. I just keep on reliving that night over and over. It's it's not nice. No parent should have to go through that. It feels like I'm being tortured every single day."

Ms Daniel's said her daughter was "always smiling".

"Shante was such a beautiful girl inside and out. She was very funny, very kind, very loyal, very creative," she said.

"She loved arts, was an artist and loved listening to music. She loved life.

"I feel like somebody has just gone in my chest and ripped my heart out. It constantly hurts."

At a sentencing hearing last month, Judge Mark Lucraft KC called for the Metropolitan Police to consider setting maximum speed limits for officers responding to incidents in residential areas.

PC Thomson, 31, from Sussex, was found guilty at the Old Bailey of careless driving and was fined £500 and had five penalty points added to his driving licence. He was cleared of the more serious charge of dangerous driving.

Rodney Folkes described Thompson's sentence following his daughter's death as "an insult to me, my family and our black community".

He said: "The criminals here are the Metropolitan police, the bosses, the system who let it happen who make hundreds, if not thousands, of police officers drive dangerously on the road too fast.

"They're the ones I blame. I want them to drive at a safe pace. Considering that most driving limits in residential areas are 20/30mph, why can a police officer drive at 83.9mph?"

A spokesperson for the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said: "Our investigation also identified potential learning for the [Met Police] around creating a policy on speed caps for officers responding to incidents, and whether such caps could improve safety.

"We consulted with the force on this learning and, following the conclusion of this case, we now plan to make a formal learning recommendation to the force on a speed cap policy, to which the force would be required by law to respond."

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: "The death of Shante Daniel-Folkes was a tragedy and our thoughts remain with her family and friends.

"Police drivers are trained to make decisions around the appropriate use of speed on a case by case basis, considering all of the available information and individual circumstances known at the relevant time.

"Following this incident the Met has reviewed its driver training in respect of convoy driving. This is now included in all standard response driving courses."

This article was updated on 27 September 2023 to make it clear the police car was not travelling at 83.9mph at the exact time of the collision but moments earlier.

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