Complaint about use of force - City of London Police, December 2015

At the end of a club night in the city of London, on 6 December 2015, a guest was fatally stabbed. Multiple City of London Police units were deployed to secure the scene and a number of arrests were made during the night.

One man was arrested for a public order offence unrelated to the stabbing. The arresting officers used force to effect this arrest, during which the man received serious injuries to his face.

During the investigation, investigators interviewed the officers involved in the altercation with the injured man, considered medical evidence, examined CCTV and mobile phone footage from a number of sources and obtained statements from several witnesses.

The investigator concluded that there was sufficient evidence upon which a reasonable tribunal could conclude that two of the four officers had a case to answer for gross misconduct for using force on the man when arresting him that was not reasonable and appropriate in the circumstances.

As we also found indications of criminal offence, we submitted a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in September 2017 for review.

After reviewing our report, the City of London Police agreed in October 2017 that one of the officers had a case to answer for gross misconduct, but not the other, and provided detailed rationale for their determination. After careful consideration of their rationale, we agreed.

In February 2018, the CPS advised that they would not be bringing criminal charges.

Based on this, the force revised their determination to no case to answer for the officer. We recommended that they proceed with gross misconduct proceedings, as no evidence had been brought forward, and the CPS had applied a different test in reaching their findings. The force agreed to hold a gross misconduct hearing.

The officer appeared before a gross misconduct hearing in August 2018, where an independent panel found gross misconduct. The officer was given a final written warning.