Allegations of inappropriate comments made by officer - Greater Manchester Police, March 2018

In March 2018 Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers arrested a man for police assault. The man was taken to hospital several times due to a suspected overdose. He was eventually booked into custody. While in custody the man had several apparent seizures and was taken to hospital again.

A special constable serving with GMP raised concerns that a police officer colleague had made several unprofessional comments towards the man, and had also used excessive force when restraining the man at custody.

During the investigation, our investigators interviewed the special constable who made the allegations, and obtained accounts from the officer concerned and from other officers who had dealt with the incident. We obtained and viewed CCTV footage, as well as documentary evidence (custody records, incident logs etc.) We were unable to locate the man to obtain an account from him.

The officer admitting to making some, but not all of the comments, claiming there was nothing unprofessional about them. The officer also denied using excessive force when restraining the man. This was corroborated by CCTV footage.

Based on the evidence available, we were of the opinion that the matter did not reach the threshold of misconduct, but that the officer’s own admission about comments he had made to the man needed to be addressed by way of management action. We completed our investigation in January 2019.

After reviewing our report, GMP agreed. They advised that the officer would receive management action, in the form of words of advice in respect of the standards of professional behaviour expected in interactions with colleagues and members of the public, and would be reminded of the behaviours required of them as per the College of Policing Code of Ethics.