Investigation into the nature and extent of police contact with the occupants of the Volkswagen Golf – Greater Manchester Police (GMP), November 2020

On 3 November 2020, GMP officers in a police car responding to the report of a burglary, caught sight of a Volkswagen Golf which they believed may have been connected to the offence.

The driver of the police car initially attempted to get closer to obtain registration details. Having obtained the details, the police vehicle came to a stop, and the officer provided the details to the force control room. A short time later, as the officers were responding to a report of another incident, they came across the Volkswagen Golf again which had collided with a stone gatepost.

Our investigation looked at the nature and extent of police contact with the occupants of the Volkswagen Golf on 3 November 2020, from first sighting by officers, to the collision.

We obtained CCTV from numerous premises, as well as data from the police vehicle, accounts from members of the public, the officers concerned and the passenger in the Volkswagen Golf.

We finalised our investigation in November 2022.

We determined there was no indication that a person serving with the police committed a criminal offence or behaved in a manner justifying the bringing of disciplinary proceedings.

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 prevent a recurrence of similar incidents.

We did not identify any organisational learning.