Complaint of use of excessive force during arrest - West Yorkshire Police, August 2016

In August 2016 a man called West Yorkshire Police (WYP) regarding a domestic violence incident. Two officers arrived and spoke with the man who had initially called the police and with his partner. They arrested the man for suspected assault on his partner. Officers handcuffed the man and walked him a short distance to the police van. On the way to the police van a struggle ensued: the man sustained a fractured mandible and cracked wisdom tooth, which required hospitalisation and surgery. The man complained to us that the force used during his arrest was excessive.

During the investigation, our investigators served notices of investigation to the two officers who arrested the man, and interviewed them under caution. We conducted house-to-house enquiries to identify witnesses and took statements from them. We also obtained statements from the man’s partner and her children, and from police officers and staff at the custody centre who had contact with the man. We also reviewed CCTV from the custody suite and the man’s medical records.

At the end of the investigation, the Lead Investigator was of the opinion that there was sufficient evidence upon which a reasonable tribunal, properly directed, could find gross misconduct for one of the officers in respect of the force they used on the man; for the second officer for not reporting their colleague’s use of force; and for both for colluding as to the incident and use of force.

The investigation submitted a file to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). After reviewing the evidence the CPS decided not to pursue any criminal case against the officers.

After reviewing our report and further exchanges between us, WYP agreed that the officer may have a case to answer for gross misconduct for their use of force, and that, only if misconduct was proven in this respect, would the panel then consider the other two allegations.

At a gross misconduct hearing held in Autumn 2018 an independent panel did not find proven that the officer had used excessive force during their struggle with the man. Both officers were found to have no case to answer on all counts.