I was pleased to have the opportunity to talk recently with journalist Matthew Davis, whose report about the scale of the problem of Police ‘wrong door’ house raids has been published in the Express.
As Matthew explains in the article, Police data reveals at least 255 cases over the last three years in which the homes of innocent people were wrongly raided by the Police, resulting in total damages payouts of over £300,000 – although in reality that figure will be much higher, as major Forces such as the Met, West Midlands Police and West Yorkshire Police claimed to be unable to provide information on this issue.
Indeed, I can claim to be personally responsible for over a third of the quoted figure of damages paid out – as you will see by reading my blogs about how I helped one family win £41,000 from Cheshire Police and another win £57,000 from Thames Valley Police.
‘Smarter Policing’ is absolutely the answer to this problem: but I am satisfied that without the spotlight shone upon it by successful compensation claims such as those of my clients highlighted, stupid errors are going to continue to occur, and terrified families will pay the emotional price.
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