Man injured during restraint - Northumbria Police, January 2019

On 1 January 2019, a member of the public contacted Northumbria Police to report that a male relative had consumed a large quantity of both drugs and alcohol, was ‘kicking off’ and wanting to ‘fight everyone’. The member of the public made a second call to the police to report that the man had broken into someone’s flat. Two officers went to the flat. One of the officers had had previous dealings with the man, who on one occasion had been violent and in possession of a kitchen knife. The officers located the man inside the flat and used force to restrain him and effect his arrest. During this interaction, one of the officers struck the man twice with his baton, one of the strikes hitting the man on his head, causing a wound.

Our investigators obtained detailed accounts from the officers and examined body-worn camera footage. The officers were treated as witnesses and co-operated fully with our investigation. We also examined recordings of the telephone calls to the police, police radio transmissions, the incident log and the officers’ use of force forms.

Investigators also considered the officers’ actions alongside local and national police policies and found that they had complied with them as required.

The available evidence confirmed the man had received an injury to his head, which the police officer explained was an unintended consequence of one of the baton strikes. The officer had aimed for a low-risk area of his body but, as a result of a struggle between the man and the second officer, the first officer accidentally missed his intended point of aim. There was no evidence to undermine the officer’s version of events.

The investigation concluded there was no indication the officers may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or committed a criminal offence. We completed our investigation in July 2019.

At the conclusion of the investigation we shared our report with Northumbria Police, who agreed with our findings.