Man sustains injury during arrest - West Midlands Police, April 2018

In April 2018 West Midlands Police officers responded to a 999 call from a member of the public reporting a domestic incident in a block of flats. On arrival the officers found a man and a woman, who they described as being heavily intoxicated. Officers found a baby while searching the flat. The officers determined that the man and the woman were too intoxicated to look after the baby and arrested them on suspicion of child neglect. The child was safeguarded by the grandparents.

The man was handcuffed and escorted out of the building by a stairway. The officers stated in their accounts that, while on the stairway, the man began to become aggressive, which resulted in him pulling out of the grip of the officers. He fell down the stairs, hitting his head. Officers provided the man with first aid and called for an ambulance. As the ambulance service could not give a time of arrival, the officers took the man to hospital in their police vehicle as an emergency. The man was treated in hospital for a small bleed on the brain.

The investigation obtained all relevant evidence including incident logs, offence reports, investigation logs and documents held by West Midlands Ambulance Service. Our investigators also obtained the pocket notebooks of all attending officers ,as well as witness statements from the officers who escorted the man down the stairway.

There was no CCTV or body-worn video footage which covered police interaction with the man. We made arrangements so the man could provide us with a witness statement, but the man cancelled these twice.

Based on the evidence available we found no indication that any person serving with the police may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings, or had committed a criminal offence.

After reviewing our report West Midlands Police agreed with our findings.