Use of Force – meeting minutes - October 2020

Attendees

Panel members- Montell Neufville Ch, Andy Watts VC, Lorraine Parkinson, Myrna Loy, Elaine Keen, Martin White, Philip Dickenson- Earl, Hayley Miller, Katie Beaumont, C/Insp Hob Hoque  Force lead, A/Sgt Vick Sanghera, Jon Vale

Agenda Main Body

Welcome / Apologies / Introduction

MN – Welcomes all and goes through introductions of all that are in attendance.

Lead - Chief Inspector Hob Hoque/ Chair Montell Neufville

Purpose of the panel and process

Explain to the group what they will be seeing and what they are expected to be doing whilst as acting as Panel members. This will be to gain all your opinions of the videos watched and then collate a common panel view. We will also RAG rate it. This is (RED, AMBER or GREEN)

Green is good, Amber is that there is learning needed, Red is unacceptable. 

In use of force we will use an Acronym called PLANTER :

P - Was the use of force Proportionate for the risk faced by the officer?

L - Was the length of time the force used acceptable?

A - Do the actions of the member of the public warrant force to be used?

N- Was it necessary to use force?

T – Was the type of force used appropriate?

E – Was it ethical to use force in the situation?

R – Was it reasonable for the officer to use force?

HMIC say the minimum amount of force should be used, we as a panel want to make sure that Bedfordshire Police are adhering to this requirement.

Lead - MN

Quarterly Review

The number of uses of force have been recorded since the 01 of July. Till the end of last month. Ten officers responsible for 12% which is 143 cases of the use of force during that time period. So just over half 57% of the use of force resulted in their risk. 82 and 82% of the use of force. The subject was male. So, in terms of gender, the personal subject to four schools of voicemail, 52 staff and 71 subjects injured in the use of force will give you a headline summary there.

This information to the highest number of recorded uses of force was in

Majority use of force occurred in the late afternoon evening. The majority of the use of force took place in open ground, then dwelling so just in relation to the times. Majority of the use of force took place in open ground van inside dwelling. The use of the 79-user full use of force, currently an emergency vehicle 39, took place in an ambulance which is which is really interesting because clearly ambulances are there to take people who are poorly but they could be used for a number of incidents i.e. Mental health.

Out of the 170 for use of force occurring in police stations, 161 of those took place in the custody block

First tactic it talks about 79% of tactical communications, 7% compliant handcuffing and it talks about in the second tactic the use of force. So, I.e. unarmed defence tactics UDT is 31% again without going through every single percentage there, it gives you a flavour of compliant, handcuffing, non-compliant handcuffing. The third tactic that the officers would have used. The fourth tactic it does go on and the fifth tactic. The officers again what they have said. So, batons were drawn on 8 occasions and of the 8 occasions, four of them they were used. 109 use of force involved deployment of taser, 12 resulted in firing and six of those involved two taser cartridges.

Questions from the Panel

MN – Can we get a report of what’s meant by other category?

ACTION – Vic has asked the analysts to provide data and have that available when the data comes up.

VS -You might have four or five officers Involved in the use of force and four of the officers might not have been the original contact officers. So, they might have come in afterwards and used force because the first officer is the one that's done the tactical communication and then it's escalated. This is the reason for the 21%.

MN – Would the form allow room for the officer to state that if that is the case?

VS – No, the form doesn't do that at the moment. The form is going to Tuserve model like the stop search which will allow for more information to be added.

HH – We didn’t have top ten quarter previously. We asked for this on this meeting. It’s the first time we’ve been able to get the top ten.

HH – So that concludes our presentation for this evening. Like I said to you, its work in progress, we’re getting there, it’s our second one so please bear with us. All your feedback will hopefully go on, taking on board and improve our product because ultimately, we want to be held to account and have this degree of being a critical friend. So, that’s it from me and a final word just to say a massive thank you to everyone at the panel. The chairs, the vice chairs for all your contribution is appreciated on behalf of the force so that’s be included.

Video 1 (In custody)

This male has been arrested by officers for domestic assault on his partner and he’s been brought into the Police station. He hasn’t been aggressive in any way. As they bring him in, he’s in handcuffs, absolutely fine. When they ask for his name, when the custody Sergeant asks for his name, his demeanour changes. They carry him down the corridor. He his detained on the floor after he tries to slap the officer’s phone out of is hand. The male is then taken to this cell where his clothing is removed due to not being searched.

RAG Graded – Green

The panel concluded that the amount of officer’s present during the incident was heavy handed and the custody sergeant did not have full control of the situation in custody. The panel has also raised concerns in regards to the poor quality of CCTV audio and blind spots.

Lead - VS

Video 2

 This video is a Boson team related video, the guns and gang crime team. This property they are going into is related to known gang members and the intelligence the officers had was there are drugs at the property along with weapons. So, they’ve applied for section 8 warrant to go to this address and capture the stuff they are looking for.

RAG Graded – Green

The panel reported that the officers were polite and calm whilst dealing with the subject and there were no concerns with the use of force.

Lead - VS

Video 3

Officers have received reports from the Ambulance service that they are with a male that was found unconscious and has become verbally aggressive towards them. They also believe he is at an address where he shouldn’t be and have asked for Police assistance. On Police arrival, Ambulance crew have confirmed that they checked the gentleman out and he is medically fit and he is just intoxicated with alcohol. Officers have then asked him to leave he location and he has refused. It ended up with the male being arrested for drunk and disorderly. The male was taken to the floor and double handcuffed due to not being able to be cuffed to the rear with a single handcuff.

RAG Graded - Green

The panel reported that the use of force was proportionate and no concerns were raised.

Lead - VS

Video 4

The circumstances surrounding this, a female has called the Police saying her brother has been drinking heavily and had become physically aggressive with her and stated she was scared of what he was going to do. Officers have attended and the male has become very aggressive towards one of the officers and attempted to assault that particular officer which has led to his arrest.

RAG Graded – Green

The panel reported that the use of force was proportionate and no concerns were raised. The panel were concerned about the female officer’s injury however were informed the officer was fine and carried on with her duty.

Any Community Issues/AOB

MN - A reminder that next week there is a scrutiny of videos. Andy is going to take the lead on that one, if anybody is available, please let Vic and Andy know. That will be at the normal time at six pm. You can look at some of the priority areas that we spoke about today if you choose. You can look at another area if you want to. The other thing is, during the day there is an internal force meeting and I think Martin expressed an interest in attending that one.

Lead - MN

Closing Remarks

HH – A thank you from me and behalf of the force really. It’s going into people’s personal time and we are grateful with the help and support you provided. Hopefully, this will be meaningful when we make meaningful changes just for our communities and the organisation. Even the little things like the camera view, getting that right and really provide feedback learning so that we can develop our panel for our communities. Thank you.

MN – Okay, thank you and thank you to everybody for coming. I will see you very soon everybody.

Lead - Chief Inspector Hob Hoque/ Chair Montell
Neufville