Allegations of use of excessive force - Staffordshire Police, July 2017

We have published our findings from an investigation following the death of a 72 year-old man in Sheffield last January.

Leslie Bingham died after a South Yorkshire Police vehicle collided with him at around 6:20pm on 7 January 2017, at the junction of Penistone Road and Owlerton Green. An inquest into Mr Bingham’s death ended on 26 June 2018 and recorded a narrative finding.

We completed our investigation into the incident in June 2017 and as a result a police constable attended a misconduct meeting held by SYP in December that year. The officer was found to have breached the standards of professional behaviour, in relation to his standard of driving, and as a result received management advice and subsequently completed a bespoke driver training course.

Evidence gathered during our investigation included:

• CCTV footage of the incident
• the accounts of 15 witnesses including a police witness and paramedics
• analysis of the condition of the Vauxhall Antara police car involved
• details of the police constable’s previous driving record
• a collision report and reconstruction carried out by West Yorkshire Police (WYP) on our behalf.

The police constable who was driving the vehicle provided a pre-prepared statement and was also interviewed under criminal caution, but chose not answer any of the questions put to him during interview.

Witness accounts and CCTV footage indicate that Mr Bingham crossed the road as the traffic lights at Penistone Road were on green in favour of the police driver. The evidence also indicates that the police car, which was not responding to an emergency call at the time, was travelling at around 41mph in a 30 mph zone seconds before the collision took place.

We referred our evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), to consider any driving offences, who made the decision not to bring criminal charges in July 2017.

IOPC Regional Director Miranda Biddle said:
“Our thoughts remain with Mr Bingham’s family and friends, and all those affected by this tragic incident. We completed this very thorough investigation, involving a great deal of evidence, within six months.

“I’m glad that South Yorkshire Police have taken positive action in response to our report. It’s essential that we independently investigate fatal road traffic incidents involving the police to help forces improve their policies and procedures and to help bereaved families find some of the answers they are looking for.”