A Police Officer assaulting someone is bad enough; that same Officer asking his colleague to lose his body camera footage of the incident is sinister evidence of how many Officers still think they are above the law and, sadly, that is exactly what came to light in Birmingham Magistrates Court last week, at a Trial in which PC Neville Bridgewood was found guilty of assaulting my client.
The fact of this case are as follows.
On 26 September 2021, at approximately 7am, my client was returning home from a night out. He had been drinking. He got on a bus, but on arrival at the bus depot he could not find the money to pay his fare. A dispute occurred between my client and the bus driver which attracted the attention of officers at a nearby Police Station. No less than 6 Police officers boarded the bus, including PC Bridgewood.
Giving judgment at the trial, District Judge Wayne was heavily reliant on the body camera footage of the one officer (PC Elwell) who had uploaded/ preserved his video of the incident. The judge noted that despite the large number of officers present they were apparently unable to recall important details, but from the footage he noted-
- PC Bridgewood spoke in a derogatory manner to my client, and made no attempt to calm the situation;
- Police allegations that my client was behaving in an aggressive manner were not born out by the body-worn footage, and there were no grounds to arrest him;
- My client did produce a £5 note so as to pay his fare;
- My client then apologised to the bus driver;
- Notwithstanding this, PC Bridgewood, without provocation or lawful cause, pushed my client to the floor, shouting at him “Fuck off home…”.
- When my client asked the PC Bridgewood why he had done this to him, the officer replied “Because you’re a fucking arsehole.”
In giving his own evidence, PC Elwell admitted that after this incident he was approached by PC Bridgewood who, evidently mindful of the incriminating footage, said “Don’t get uploading that till after 30 days.” This was to all intents and purposes a request by Bridgewood that Elwell destroy the footage – because if body camera files are not ‘uploaded’ within 30 days, they are wiped over. However, Elwell had already uploaded the footage – to PC Bridgewood’s dismay.
There were 4 other Police Officers present (in addition to Elwell and Bridgewood) one of whose body worn camera apparently had an unknown fault, and all of whom apparently couldn’t recollect important details about the incident. It appears that throughout the trial all of the other Police officers were highly reluctant to comment as to the lawfulness of the use of force by their colleague (in a way that they presumably would not have been had my client been the Defendant).
In convicting PC Bridgewood, DJ Wayne found that the officer had lost his temper, resulting in an unlawful use of force – and that he had tried to make sure that the footage was not before the Court.
The case has now been adjourned for sentencing, whilst PC Bridgewood will also quite rightly face misconduct proceedings and I would expect him to be dismissed from the Force. In my view the Officer’s most heinous act was not the momentary loss of temper/descent of red mist which caused him to push my client to the floor and injure him, but the utterly disreputable and equally criminal attempt by the Officer to destroy the footage of that crime afterwards and thereby pervert the course of justice.
It is that sort of behaviour by Police Officers, rather than momentary loss of control or acts of aggression, which really destroys the faith that our communities have in those who are meant to police and protect them.
Evidently, some Officers still think that enforcing the law means being above the law. Whilst it is true that PC Bridgewood did not get away with this offence, the apparently casual way in which he asked his colleague to (in effect) delete evidence of PC Bridgewood’s criminal behaviour is very concerning, because the obvious conclusion to draw is that PC Bridgewood assumed that his colleague would not bat an eyelid at complying with this request. Had that footage indeed been destroyed then Bridgewood would almost certainly have walked free from Court – or, more likely, not even faced criminal charges in the first place.
There is a legitimate question to be raised from this as to how many Officers, with the assistance of equally corrupt colleagues who want to ‘protect’ them, are getting away with this sort of sinister abuse of power.
The Spirit of Justice is meant to be blind; but not because the body camera footage has been destroyed.
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