Man self-harms during contact with police - Cleveland Police, August 2018

At 12.11pm on 15 August 2018, four Cleveland Police officers visited a flat in order to arrest the occupant on suspicion of the murder of his partner. The officers located the flat in which he lived and identified themselves as police officers when knocking at the door. After receiving no response, the officers forced entry to the flat, whereupon the occupant cut his throat with a blade. The officers then arrested him and provided immediate first aid.

We obtained statements from the four officers involved in the arrest and carried out a review of the body-worn camera footage. The man did not engage with our investigation and did not provide a statement.

After a thorough examination of all the evidence, we concluded that the officers could not have reasonably foreseen that their actions in seeking to arrest the man would have led him to inflict the injury to his throat.

Throughout the investigation, we did not consider there to be an indication that any police officer may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or committed a criminal offence. All officers co-operated fully with the investigation.

We concluded our investigation in October 2018.

After reviewing our report, Cleveland Police agreed with our findings.