More than 500,000 people have signed a petition calling on the Government to prevent the killers of PC Andrew Harper from being released early, as anger continues to grow over the controversial prison policy.

Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, who were convicted of manslaughter following the death of the Thames Valley Police officer, remain eligible for release after serving half of their 13-year sentences.

Their potential release has become one of the most contentious examples of the Government’s plans to ease pressure on Britain’s overcrowded prisons.

Under the revised scheme, around 5,000 prisoners are expected to be released early, a reduction from the original estimate of 6,000 after ministers announced that rapists and people convicted of serious child sexual offences would be excluded.

However, those changes have not protected Bowers and Cole from the policy.

The two men were teenagers when they were involved in the events that led to PC Harper’s death in August 2019. The officer, who was 28, had been responding to reports of a quad bike theft in Berkshire when he pursued suspects travelling in a SEAT Toledo towing the stolen vehicle.

During the pursuit, PC Harper became caught in a strap being used to tow the quad bike. He was dragged for around a mile before suffering fatal injuries.

His death shocked the policing community and prompted a lengthy campaign by his widow, Lissie Harper, for tougher sentences for people convicted of killing emergency workers while committing crimes.

That campaign ultimately led to Harper’s Law, which introduced tougher sentencing provisions for those convicted of killing emergency workers in specified circumstances.

But the law came after Bowers and Cole had been sentenced, meaning they remain subject to the rules that applied when their convictions were handed down.

The driver of the vehicle, Henry Long, received a 16-year sentence and is not eligible for the Government’s early-release scheme.

The different treatment has become a source of particular frustration for PC Harper’s family and colleagues, who argue that the men responsible for his death should not be able to benefit from a policy designed primarily to deal with the country’s prison-capacity crisis.

The petition demanding action was launched by Aileen O’Connor, chair of the Thames Valley Police Federation.

It has now passed the 500,000-signature mark, reflecting the strength of feeling surrounding the case.

O’Connor said the decision to leave Bowers and Cole eligible for early release had reopened wounds that had never properly healed.

“This decision pours salt into wounds that have never healed,” she said.

She argued that PC Harper’s family, friends and colleagues had repeatedly been forced to revisit the circumstances of his death while watching developments that they believe fail to recognize the sacrifice made by the officer.

Her criticism also extended to the wider message she believes the policy sends to serving police officers.

“Police Officers put themselves in harm’s way every day,” O’Connor said. “They run towards danger when everyone else is running away. They do so knowing that they may never come home to their families.”

She argued that excluding police killers from additional protections created a troubling impression about how the Government values those who protect the public.

The controversy comes against the backdrop of a much wider problem facing the prison system.

Conservative and Labour governments have both used forms of early release during periods when prisons have come under intense capacity pressure. The current Government has argued that failing to act could result in prisons running out of space, creating consequences for the wider criminal justice system.

The Institute for Government has said men’s prisons are operating at around 97 per cent capacity, although that represents an improvement from approximately 99 per cent during the summer of 2024.

Ministers have therefore maintained that some form of early release is necessary to prevent the prison estate from reaching breaking point.

But the Harper case has exposed the difficulty of applying a broad policy to individual offenders whose crimes provoke an exceptional level of public concern.

For Lissie Harper, the issue is not simply about numbers or prison capacity.

It is about the sentence her husband’s killers were given and whether that sentence should carry the meaning the family understood it to have.

She has urged members of the public to support the petition and called on ministers to reconsider their position.

“Hopefully we can make the current government come to their senses and realise we cannot put people like this back on our streets,” she said.

“Justice should mean justice and serving the sentence given.”

Her comments have resonated with police officers and supporters who believe the early-release decision undermines confidence in the criminal justice system.

The Government, meanwhile, has defended the broader policy by pointing to the severe pressure facing prisons.

The number of prisoners being released early has already been reduced after ministers agreed to exclude rapists and serious child sex offenders. The Government says the changes represent an attempt to strike a balance between reducing overcrowding and protecting the public from some of the most dangerous offenders.

But campaigners say that distinction does not go far enough.

They argue that someone convicted of manslaughter in circumstances involving the death of a police officer should also be excluded, particularly when the officer was killed while responding to a criminal incident.

The case has also highlighted the lasting impact of PC Harper’s death on the people who knew him.

His widow has spent years campaigning in his memory, turning personal grief into a campaign for changes to the law. The resulting legislation means that people convicted under similar circumstances today could face significantly tougher consequences.

Yet the timing of the legislation has left Bowers and Cole outside its reach.

That has created an uncomfortable gap between the protections now available to emergency workers and the treatment of those convicted over PC Harper’s death.

Supporters of the petition believe that gap should be addressed before the two men become eligible for release.

O’Connor has described the Government’s decision as an insult to PC Harper’s family and to the wider policing community.

Her comments reflect a broader concern among officers that the criminal justice system should demonstrate strong support for people who face danger as part of their work.

The debate is also likely to continue as the Government works through the practical consequences of its prison strategy.

If ministers find additional capacity elsewhere in the prison system, they could potentially have greater flexibility over who is released early. But unless the rules are changed or an exemption is created, Bowers and Cole remain eligible under the current arrangements.

For now, the petition continues to gather support.

The fact that more than half a million people have signed it ensures that the issue is unlikely to disappear quietly, particularly with PC Harper’s family continuing to campaign publicly.

Seven years after the officer died on a Berkshire road, his name remains at the centre of a national argument about sentencing, prison overcrowding and the protection owed to those who put themselves in danger for the public.

For Lissie Harper and the thousands who have joined her campaign, the principle is straightforward.

They believe a prison sentence should mean what it says.

And as the Government weighs how far its early-release scheme should go, pressure is mounting for ministers to decide whether PC Harper’s killers should be treated as another statistic in an overcrowded prison system, or as offenders whose particular crime demands a different response.