Man sustained serious injuries following use of force – South Yorkshire Police, December 2021

In December 2021, South Yorkshire Police officers arrested a man on suspicion of committing a serious offence and transported him to a police custody suite. Upon their arrival, the custody officer sent the man to hospital to be checked for any medical issues following the incident for which he had been arrested. After being discharged from the hospital, the man, who was still under arrest but was not handcuffed, ran away from police officers and a police dog was deployed to help locate him.

As the police dog and its handler searched a garden of a private property, the police dog found the man underneath a car and barked to alert his handler. The dog then bit the man who sustained serious injuries. The man was removed from underneath the car and police officers provided him with first aid.

We obtained accounts from the police officers who were with the man at hospital, and the police dog handler. We obtained and examined the police dog handler’s body worn video camera footage, police radio transmissions and incident logs. We considered the officers’ decisions and actions alongside local and national police policies and legislation and found that they had complied with them as required.

Although the man sustained serious injuries as a result of the police dog biting him, the investigation concluded that the dog acted in accordance with its training and there was no indication the officers involved 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.

Our investigation concluded in August 2022.

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. In this case, the investigation did not identify any organisational learning.