Man drowned in canal after police pursuit – Metropolitan Police Service, October 2020
On the evening of 7 October 2020, three Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) officers were patrolling on bicycles along the canal paths at Tottenham Hale Lock. The officers approached a group of men on bikes and electric scooters to make enquiries relating to several recent robberies around the River Lea towpath.
One man was detained by police and two others came to be in the water at different points along the towpath after they were pursued. One of them was pulled from the water and detained but the other man could not be found. Other resources including the National Police Air Service (NPAS) attended. His body was recovered from the waterway the following morning.
A Post Incident was declared, and we attended. An independent investigation commenced on the 9 October 2020.
We focused on the police contact with the man before his death including the pursuit, a struggle that took place between him and an officer, how he came to be in the water, and subsequent efforts to find him. We also looked at the decision by police to approach the group on the towpath. During our investigation we obtained a volume of evidence. We reviewed a significant number of statements and more than 100 hours of body worn footage and police airwaves.
Our investigation was completed in April 2021.
During our inquiries, one officer was served with a misconduct notice as there was an indication a person serving with the police may have behaved in a manner which would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings. We advised them that they were under investigation for potential breaches of professional standards for duties and responsibilities over their use of body worn video, and whether that was activated in accordance with policy.
We concluded that the officer had a case to answer for misconduct. The proceedings in the form of a misconduct meeting.
Following completion of our investigation we shared our report with the man’s family, the force and the Coroner. We waited for all associated proceedings to be complete before publishing our findings.
The misconduct meeting was held in October 2021. The panel concluded the inactivation of their body worn camera does not appear from the evidence to be a deliberate act to hide an action. Therefore the officer’s omission in not switching his camera on prior to or during the interaction with the deceased man did not amount to misconduct.
The inquest was held in November 2021 and reached the conclusion of a narrative verdict which concluded that the man was non-compliant with the police officer’s stop and search request.
We carefully considered whether there were any learning opportunities arising from the investigation. We make learning recommendations to improve policing and public confidence in the police complaints system and to prevent a recurrence of similar incidents. We identified several areas of learning and issued these as Section 10 recommendations under the Police Reform Act 2002:
- Officers deployed to patrol areas near bodies of water be equipped with throw lines in the event that either they, their colleagues, or a member of the public, should enter the water unexpectedly.
- The MPS enhance their existing cycle training to include a pursuit element.
- The MPS enhance their existing water training to include an element instructing officers on how to cope should they enter a body of water unexpectedly.