Death following police pursuit – Hampshire Constabulary, August 2020

In August 2020, officers from Hampshire Constabulary attended reports of a shooting at a home address. Witnesses told police the man had a shotgun and made off on a motorbike. Firearms officers and the National Police Air Service (NPAS) were deployed to search for the man. They located the man and began a pursuit. The man crashed his motorbike and died at the scene.

We attended the scene and oversaw a detailed collision examination. We obtained statements from witnesses and officers involved in the pursuit. We analysed and compared the police officers’ body worn video footage and vehicle-mounted camera footage. We reviewed video downloads from NPAS and police radio transmissions.

We completed our investigation in January 2021. Based on the available evidence, we concluded there was no indication that any police officer had behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or had committed a criminal offence. Hampshire Constabulary was not required to make any determinations because we were satisfied that the report did not raise any performance issues.

Throughout the investigation, we carefully considered whether there were any opportunities for learning or improvement. We make learning recommendations to improve policing and public confidence in the police complaints system and to prevent a recurrence of similar incidents. In this case, we did not identify any learning opportunities.