Boy on a bicycle injured by car driver being pursued by officers - West Yorkshire Police, June 2019

On 24 June 2019, two West Yorkshire Police (WYP) traffic officers on patrol in Leeds in a marked police car saw a BMW which was being driven by a man when it was only insured for a woman driver. The officer driving the police car illuminated his car’s blue lights and activated the siren, but the BMW failed to stop and drove away at speed.

The officers pursued the BMW for approximately six and a half minutes before deciding to abort the pursuit when the BMW travelled through a no entry sign and drove against the flow of traffic. The officers almost immediately re-sighted the car and continued to pursue it for a further minute. They again aborted the pursuit on sighting a young boy who had been knocked off his bicycle by the pursued car which failed to stop following the collision.

The boy received an injury to his knee and wrist and the officers attended to him, providing first aid assistance and requesting the attendance of an ambulance.

We obtained accounts from the police officers and examined the police in-car footage which recorded the entirety of the pursuit. We also examined the audio recording of the pursuit and incident logs.

We considered the officers’ actions alongside local and national police policies and found that they had complied with them as required. The investigation concluded there was no indication the officers may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or committed a criminal offence. There was also no indication that the officers’ decisions and actions caused or contributed to the collision or the injuries sustained. Both officers were treated as witnesses.

At the conclusion of our investigation we shared our report with WYP who agreed with our findings.