If the police officers who witnessed the assault on Ian Tomlinson will not come forward voluntarily, then we ourselves must drag them into the public arena

Tonight I have been working through all the photographs and video of the attack on Ian Tomlinson that was witnessed shortly before his death.

I have taken as many screengrabs as possible, and attempted to identify what officers were in the shot at any one time. So far, we are told, just four officers in total have come forward. As these pictures show, there are at least eighteen police officers close enough to see what happened last Wednesday on Royal Exchange Buildings by Cornhill.

I hope that these pictures might help jog the memory of someone – anyone – who was in London that day. Perhaps you took a photograph of a policeman whom you think you recognise here – a photograph which is clearer, perhaps even showing a number on an epaulette or a helmet. Please do check through your pictures and compare them with these.

Or maybe you weren’t in London on the 1st of April, but you happen to recognise a relative, or an acquaintance from your local, or a neighbour. If you do, please don’t just leave it be.

If enough people – ordinary people, people like us – take the time and trouble to hold those responsible (through their action or their inaction) for the death of Ian Tomlinson, force them to come forward and be held accountable, then we might – just might – help prevent this happening again, only next time to your father, my mother, our friends, our loved ones. Don’t leave it to the IPCC.

Anyway, here are the pictures.

Some caveats:

• I cannot guarantee that I have accurately tracked each individual officer, but I have tried my best. The low angle in particular makes it difficult to judge depth, and the Guardian film in particular tracks what is going on to Ian Tomlinson, not the police milling around in the background. I have tried to use the still photos and the Channel 4 News footage to guide the identification by context.
• To try and make things easier, I have batched together different types of police officer – see the key below for more details.
• Where civilians cross the shot, I have mostly left them out of the identification process, except where they have a direct involvement in the incident.

Key:

• A = The police officer who actually assaults Ian Tomlinson (1)
• C = City of London TSG (riot) officers (1)
• D = City of London dog handlers (5)
• F = Officers wearing hi-viz jackets with blue flashing, which is associated with the Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT cops) (5)
• T = Metropolitan Police TSG (riot) officers (though they might be Level 2 trained regular police, they are wearing riot gear) (3)
• U = Unidentified uniformed officers (3)

• IT = Ian Tomlinson, the man who died after being clubbed and pushed to the ground by police
• AE = Alan Edwards, who witnessed the attack and helped Ian Tomlinson to his feet (I assume that this is Alan Edwards based on his actions captured on camera, which match the actions ascribed to him in subsequent newspaper interviews)
• UW = Unidentified witnesses, who come into contact with the other principals

Source material:

• Mainly The Guardian’s ‘American tourist’ video;
• ITN’s ‘broken camera’ Channel 4 News footage, resized up to 500 pixels wide;
• Three Alex Cudby pictures posted on Flickr (black border cropped and levels lightened), resized down to 500 pixels wide;
• Some higher resolution web-scavenged stills from the ‘American tourist’ video than I could get off my copy, resized up to 500 pixels wide;
• Kris Sime’s black and white photo of Ian Tomlinson lying on the ground, resized up to 500 pixels wide;
• and Jasper Jackson’s photo of Ian Tomlinson staggering off afterwards, resized up to 500 pixels wide

PS I appreciate that is a lengthy post. After a few days I intend to replace most of the photographs with a link to a Flickr album, where I will archive all of them, plus the originals from which they were taken.