Excessive force alleged during son's arrest - Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, March 2022

The IOPC recommends that Devon and Cornwall police take steps to ensure officers and PCSOs are aware of their duty to accurately record their uses of force in use-of-force-forms, and for attendance at all incidents which require a record be made for evidential purposes, they create a record in the most appropriate form (i.e pocket-notebook entry or statement, as well as retention of Body Worn Video Footage).

This follows an investigation which concerned the restraint and arrest of a man that was videoed by a member of the public. Eleven officers told IOPC investigators that they had personally used force on the male, yet only one officer submitted a use of force form. The expectation is that officers complete a use of force form in respect of the force they personally used, and as such, this use of force form did not detail all the force used against the male; it made no reference to the use of limb restraints, spit hood or CAPTOR spray (an incapacitant spray), nor the multiple officer lift. The Use of Force policy states that “Officers will complete the appropriate use of force report form whenever they use physical force…the relevant custody Sergeant (designated or non-designated facilities) will ensure adherence to this procedure, but it remains the ultimate responsibility of the officer using the force to ensure that the use of force report form is completed”. Only one officer completed a meaningful pocket-notebook entry in respect of this incident (one PC and one PCSO noted their attendance but nothing further), despite 26 telling the IOPC they were present at the incident. Only three officers provided statements about this interaction, which were submitted as evidence for the investigation into the male for assaulting emergency workers. Devon and Cornwall police’s pocket notebook policy states an entry should be made following “Incidents which require a record for evidential purposes where no original notes are made elsewhere “. During the arrest attempt, the officer utilised the code zero function on their radio (signifying that an officer was in urgent need of assistance), resulting in attendances from other police constables, detective constables, sergeants and police community support officers, meaning that this issue is not unique to one team, but widespread.

The IOPC recommends that Devon and Cornwall Police should take steps to ensure Exeter officers are aware of their duty of cooperation during IOPC investigations.

This follows an investigation in which IOPC investigators were met with delays in obtaining statements from numerous police witnesses. The IOPC contacted the officers, providing details of the information required from them and requested that they provide statements within seven days. Only 10 of the 29 officers contacted met this deadline. Nine officers took more than 14 days to complete their statements, with one taking 31 days and another taking 40 days to respond. Three officers required intervention by the force’s professional standards department before they completed statements; one officer responded after the IOPC notified him of the intention to use its powers to compel him to attend a witness interview. Finally, a number of the statements were not completed correctly (for example they were not signed correctly, or the number of pages was incorrect), and required further updating, with this also incurring delays of up to 25 days.

The IOPC recommends that Devon and Cornwall police should take steps to ensure Exeter officers and PCSOs are aware of ACPO guidance (Association of Chief Police Officers Communication Advisory Group Guidance 2010) in respect of members of the public taking photographs. This follows an IOPC investigation which dealt with a number of complaints, one of which referred to officers and PCSOs attempting to block a member of the public from filming the arrest.