How The Police Misconduct System Lets Officers Off The Hook

A few weeks ago, in the context of the recent Casey Report, I blogged about the pros and cons of bringing a police complaint (in addition to a compensation claim), the conclusion being that the British public simply does not have the effective and independent police complaint system that it deserves. 

I began that previous blog with a quotation from the ‘new broom’ at the Met – Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley –  who had concluded that there were hundreds of people in his Police Force guilty of such ‘disgraceful’ behaviour that they deserved ejecting from the profession – however, as the case study which I will present today amply demonstrates, the pro- police bias of the complaint investigation system is such that many officers who should be at risk of losing their jobs still only end up facing low-grade misconduct charges which cannot result in dismissal. Thus does the system ‘let them off the hook’.

Ehab El-Masry’s case

(For the purposes of this blog, as it involves an ongoing misconduct case, I have changed the names of all parties including my client and the Police officer).

The incident in question happened on Christmas Day 2021 when Ehab El-Masry’s brother returned home and showed Ehab El-Masry a badge which he had found in the street, and which appeared to be a Metropolitan Police Officer’s badge (i.e a Warrant Card).  Ehab’s brother, being a good citizen, then called the Police to report what he had found and to arrange for them to come and pick it up. Mr El-Masry thought no more about this.

Unbeknownst to Ehab, it appears that after his brother contacted the Police to report having found the officer’s badge, the Police became aggressively keen on immediately recovering it – notwithstanding that it was Christmas and Ehab’s brother was actually out visiting a friend and his family.

Mr El-Masry was home alone and half asleep when he heard knocking on the door at about 1am in the early hours of Boxing Day. 

He then opened his front door to be confronted by three uniformed Police Officers, two male and one female – one of the male Officers being PC Lynch .

The Officers questioned Ehab as to whether he was his brother and when he explained that he wasn’t, one of the Officers threateningly said “We’re not going to wait for your brother all night, he needs to turn up within the next five minutes or he’ll be in trouble.”

Ehab was taken aback by the attitude of the Officers – correctly asserting that his brother had done a good deed by finding the badge and calling the Police.   The Police were instead, bizarrely, acting as if his brother had stolen it.

By this point Mr El-Masry had phoned his brother, who confirmed that he had spoken earlier to the Police to report his finding of the badge, and he was surprised that they had now turned up at this time without notice.  However, his brother told Ehab that he would immediately get a taxi and return home.

A short while later, Ehab’s brother did indeed arrive home by taxi. He collected the Police badge from the house and returned outside, where the group of Officers confronted him – and one of them grabbed Ehab’s brother stating that he was now under detention for the purposes of a search.

Ehab was shocked by the Officer’s aggressive and totally unnecessary manhandling of his brother and sought to protest – especially in light of the fact that his brother had a pre-existing injury (he had recently fractured his foot). 

However, this only caused the Officers to turn their aggression upon Ehab as well and, almost unbelievably, this scene of two ‘good Samaritan’ brothers attempting to return a lost Warrant Card to the Police at Christmas, had now turned completely upside down – with the Officers using brutal force against Mr El-Masry and his brother as if they had been caught red-handed in the act of stealing, not attempting to return, the Warrant Card.

It was PC Lynch who attacked Ehab, my client, and fortunately body-worn video camera footage (BWV) uncontrovertibly demonstrates what happened next (despite the Officer’s attempt to frame his actions in very different terms afterwards) and that footage led the Professional Standards Unit of the MPS to reach the following findings –

• That PC Lynch performed an unreasonable and unnecessary, and in fact excessive, neck/head lock upon Ehab

• That Mr El-Masry was calm and not appearing to offer any level of aggression that could justify this

• That PC Lynch ’s suggestion that he believed that Ehab was trying to grab the warrant card and steal it, is contradicted by what is shown on the BWV

• That PC Lynch handcuffed Ehab El-Masry without any objective justification and even without any attempt to communicate with/explain his intentions to my client

• That the BWV footage clearly shows Ehab shouting several times that he could not breathe whilst he was being restrained on the floor, but that PC Lynch did not give any consideration to this and continued with the application of handcuffs

• That PC Lynch ’s suggestion that he was ‘monitoring’ my client’s breathing is not in any way supported by the footage and furthermore the Officer did not provide any reassurance to Ehab or even consider getting him up from the floor in order to reposition him, rather the Officer shouted at my client and pushed him down

• That even after my client was in handcuffs, PC Lynch kept him restrained on the floor without giving any explanation as to why or what was happening, nor any consideration to our client’s welfare – for a period of some 7 minutes

• That PC Lynch ’s actions were unnecessary and excessive, especially given the fact that the footage demonstrates that Ehab was not offering any resistance – and yet PC Lynch in his response to the complaint failed to accept that there was no resistance being offered to him and rather attempted to continue to justify his unlawful actions

• That PC Lynch demonstrated a total lack of care and respect in the way in which he spoke to Mr El-Masry throughout the entire interaction and his ultimate response to my client’s complaints about breathing difficulties and pain was at first disinterest and then a sarcastic dismissal. 

In Conclusion

Despite the seriousness of the above findings reached by the Complaint Investigator, PC Lynch was charged only with misconduct not gross misconduct, and hence whatever the outcome of the misconduct process, the officer is at no jeopardy of losing his job – for only a finding of gross misconduct can justify dismissal from the Force.

Ehab El-Masry is currently pursuing an appeal to the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) against this failure by Professional Standards to categorise PC Lynch ’s behaviour as gross misconduct – both in terms of the officer’s actions at the time of the incident and also, notably, in his response to the complaint investigation. The available facts demonstrate multiple failings of character on the part of PC Lynch which render him unsuitable to hold the honourable office of Police Constable, including a lack of remorse for his unlawful actions, an apparently mendacious twisting of the facts in order to justify those actions, and an arrogant, brutal and bullying use of force towards my client who was detained without explanation and made the victim of potentially life-endangering acts of assault/battery – being taken in a neck strangle hold and then held down upon the ground and thereby being prevented from breathing normally.

In light of those undisputable facts, my client feels that it is only right and proper that the panel who ultimately decide PC Lynch’s punishment should have the option available to them, under a charge of gross misconduct, of dismissing this Officer from the Force on the grounds of multiple breaches of the standards of professional behaviour in terms of use of force; discreditable conduct; duties and responsibilities; authority respect and courtesy and (in regards to PC Lynch ’s response to the Complaint Investigation itself) honesty and integrity.

Whether the IOPC will agree with our submissions remains to be seen, but experiences like this demonstrate why all too many people are left feeling that there is no real justice in the Police complaint system, and I am caused to reflect upon Baroness Casey’s recent statement:

“There are moments when I have looked at the cases with people I’ve listened to and I have wondered what exactly would constitute gross misconduct in order to get them out of the force.” 

The dysfunctionality of the Police misconduct system is long-standing and multi-layered, and I feel it is the responsibility of those of us with direct knowledge of these problems to keep training the spotlight upon them, or else, frankly, nothing is going to change.

All names changed.

Update

I can report that although the IOPC did not uphold Ehab’s appeal, I am pleased to confirm that, after lengthy negotiations, the Metropolitan Police agreed to pay Ehab compensation of £15,180 plus legal fees – a settlement reflecting my client’s claim for wrongful arrest. You can read what happened here.