Use of incapacitant spray during the arrest of a 13-year-old – Greater Manchester Police, August 2020

In August 2020, two Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers in an unmarked police vehicle in the Moss Side area of Manchester reported seeing a boy in a park involved in what they suspected was an exchange of drugs. After seeing the officers, the boy ran off.

One of the officers searched the area on foot and saw the boy walking towards him. The officer asked the boy to stop but did not inform him of the reason. The boy did not stop, an interaction occurred between the boy and the officer, and the boy ran away. While continuing to run away the boy turned his head to look back. The officer used incapacitant spray in the boy’s face in order to detain him for the purposes of a stop and search.

Additional officers arrived to assist in detaining and searching the boy for drugs and weapons. No drugs or weapons were found. After a few minutes, the boy was informed he was free to leave with no further action to be taken. However, a further incident occurred where officers alleged the boy became abusive, aggressive, and assaulted officers. As a result, the boy was arrested for assault on an officer in the execution of his duty. Shortly afterwards, the boy was further arrested for a previous police assault and a racially aggravated public order offence.

Our investigation followed the referral by the force of a complaint from the child’s father in August 2020.

During our investigation, we obtained witness statements, conducted interviews, viewed body worn video footage and analysed GMP’s policies and procedures.

Our investigation concluded in December 2020.

We found an officer had a case to answer for misconduct and Greater Manchester Police arranged disciplinary proceedings. We found the force used by the officer in this case was neither reasonable nor proportionate and could have been avoided. We found no evidence the boy posed any immediate threat to police or the public and the officer’s conduct during the incident fell short of what would be expected of a serving officer.

The officer faced a misconduct meeting in January 2022, where he was found to have breached the standards of professional behaviour in relation to his use of force. The officer received a written warning.

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, but the investigation was considered as part of a wider piece of work we did to study stop and search cases nationally.