Police pursuit of a stolen delivery vehicle - West Yorkshire Police, May 2022

In May 2022 we began an independent investigation into the actions of West Yorkshire Police after a road traffic collision left a man with life changing injuries.
A stolen delivery van failed to stop for West Yorkshire Police officers when requested to do so. A suitably trained member of police staff in the control room authorised a pursuit of the van.

The van entered a road junction without stopping and collided with a member of the public’s vehicle. One of the van’s occupants suffered serious injuries.

We obtained accounts from the police officers involved in the pursuit. We also examined audio recordings, incident logs and police dash camera footage. We considered the officers’ actions alongside local and national police policies, procedures and guidance.

The investigation found 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. All officers were treated as witnesses and cooperated fully with this investigation.

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 in this case.