My name is Iain Gould. I am a solicitor specialising in complaints, claims and civil actions against the Police. With over 30 years of experience and a national reputation, I have successfully sued all 43 police forces in England and Wales challenging abuse of power and securing rightful compensation.
If you believe you may have been unlawfully arrested by the Police, please contact me here for advice.
I have previously blogged about the case of my client Patrick, a student who in the course of an ordinary night out with friends in a busy city centre, was subjected to an unlawful arrest for “Drunk and Disorderly” behaviour, in the context of the dysfunctional police complaints system.
I am pleased to confirm that having initially succeeded in getting Merseyside Police’s rejection of Patrick’s complaint overturned, I have now gone on to secure not only a formal apology from the Police to my client but a settlement of his claim for damages in the sum of £22,250.
A Lawful Search turns into an Unlawful Arrest
Outside a night club in Liverpool, Patrick was approached by several Police Officers, including PC Barry. Patrick was informed that the officers wanted to search him for drugs; despite knowing that he had not been taking and nor was he in the possession of any illegal drugs, Patrick complied with the search, and nothing was found.
So far there was nothing untoward or out of the ordinary; the officers were carrying out a fairly routine “policing the night time economy” operation.
However, despite the negative search results, the officers continued to detain Patrick, with PC Barry demanding Patrick’s name, date of birth and address – information to which he wasn’t actually entitled.
Patrick, who was studying for a degree in computing, rightly questioned why he was still being detained and explained that he hoped to pursue a career in national security and that he was concerned that PC Barry’s actions were “fucking up” his future. His concern was understandable: PC Barry was effectively creating a ‘digital fingerprint’ for Patrick in the Police database, and whilst this was going to be associated with a negative drugs search result – some future employers might suspect that there was ‘no smoke without fire.’
Once the search was over, PC Barry continued to tell Patrick that he was still “detained” for the purposes of the officer obtaining Patrick’s personal details – no such power existing, this was an unlawful detention from the off, although the Officer no doubt presumed that most members of the public wouldn’t know that, and would instead ‘obey the uniform.’ As it happened, Patrick did comply – telling Barry his full name, DOB and most of his address, albeit at the same time expressing his concerns as above. Indeed, he was actually in the middle of checking his student accommodation address when the impatient Officer arrested him for being “disorderly.”
Rather than allow Patrick to go about his lawful business as soon as the search was completed – which is what the law required – PC Barry falsely represented that Patrick had to give his details so a record could be made; in fact the opposite is true. Only one party is obliged to give their details to the other for the purposes of a stop/ search, and it is the Police Officer, not the member of the public.
Whilst being detained under these false pretences, Patrick did comply with the Officer’s unlawful data-harvesting request, whilst expressing disquiet about it and lightly peppering his comments with the ‘f’ word (used only as an adjective, not an accusative). Declaring that Patrick was under arrest for “Drunk and Disorderly behaviour”, PC Barry escalated his initial unlawful detention of my client. Patrick – in a state of shock – was handcuffed, marched to a police van and transported to a Custody Centre, where he spent the night in the cells.
For doing what? Mere use of swear-words is simply not a criminal offence.
Can a Community Resolution be Rescinded?
The following morning, after a miserable night in the cells, Patrick had to undergo the dehumanising experience having his fingerprints and a DNA sample taken, and being photographed – the marks of shame of a criminal suspect which are particularly outrageous to the feelings of an innocent person who has been wrongfully arrested.
The next morning, Merseyside Police persuaded Patrick to accept a Community Resolution Order (CRO).
A Community Resolution is a form of quasi- caution and does require an admission of the alleged offence. Although not a formal criminal caution or conviction (and so not appearing on a person’s Police National Computer profile), Community Resolutions are recorded in local Police records for the purposes of “intelligence” and so can be taken into account in regards to future criminal investigations, or disclosed to employers if an enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check is required. So, they are not to be taken lightly.
In the stressful situation of Custody, Patrick agreed to the CRO – understandably, he just wanted to get home – but on reflection later that day, and particularly on watching back his friend’s mobile phone footage of the incident, Patrick (quite rightly) concluded that he had not committed the alleged offence – and telephoned PC Barry himself to complain about this.
I will just pause here to add a reminder of how helpful that mobile phone footage was to Patrick – an objective log of what had occurred, when he might have begun to doubt himself. Whenever possible, phones should be used to record situations in which the Police are stopping or challenging you – they are our shields against abuse of power.
Unsurprisingly, PC Barry’s attempt to ‘scare’ Patrick away from retracting his agreement to the Community Resolution – something he was perfectly entitled to do, albeit with the consequence of potentially facing criminal prosecution in the Magistrates Court instead – if there was any substance to the underlying allegation of an offence.
Patrick, however, quite rightly rejected the Community Resolution, determined to maintain his integrity and prove his innocence in court if need be – and the Police backed down and did not pursue the matter further.
Patrick having consulted me, I agreed to take on his claim for unlawful arrest on a no win, no fee basis, and also to assist Patrick with his complaint against PC Barry.
Out of Order : How do you prove that the Police have wrongly arrested you for “Drunk and Disorderly behaviour”.
Under Section 91 of the Criminal Justice Act 1967, the offence of Drunk and Disorderly behaviour requires the arresting officer to have reasonable suspicion that –
1. A person is drunk AND
2. Is behaving in a disorderly way AND
3. Their conduct is occurring in a public place.
Do note that third element – the offence simply cannot be committed if the person in question is on private land. You can read here about a case in which I successfully sued Hertfordshire Police on behalf of a client arrested for Drunk and Disorderly behaviour on private land (in that case, the exterior concourse of an apartment block).
In Patrick’s case, there was no doubt that his interactions with PC Barry were occurring in a very public place – and Patrick would be the first to admit that he had drunk several pints and was a little ‘merry’ – but mere drunkenness is not a justification for the arrest. Disorderly behaviour is required, and merely using the ‘f’ word as an adjective is not disorderly conduct – even if it makes a blushing Police Officer’s ears burn.
In this context, disorderly conduct is defined by the Crown Prosecution Service, in accordance with decades of case law, as such obvious acts of anti-social behaviour as –
- Violent or threatening behaviour;
- Disrupting a lawful assembly of people;
- Rowdy, disturbing behaviour such as making unreasonable noise at night and continuing to do so after being asked to stop;
- Shouting abuse and obscenities and thereby causing alarm.
What it does not encompass is the low-level, everyday use of swear words in conversation, arguing with or questioning a Police Officer’s behaviour whilst intoxicated. Yet that was what Patrick was effectively arrested for.
When I saw the video evidence, I had no hesitation in advising Patrick that he would ultimately be successful in his claim for wrongful arrest, because the Police would be unable to demonstrate any disorderly behaviour on his part.
Notably, indeed, Patrick’s complaint that PC Barry’s (unlawful) harvesting of his data in this context was “fucking up” his hopes for a career in national security, was nothing compared to the language being used by one of the other Police Officers who could be heard on the mobile phone footage of the incident shouting at a by-stander “Stop being a fucking dick head, now fuck off!”
After I had successfully appealed to the Police Complaints Adjudicator at the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside (OPCC), the original rejection of Patrick’s complaint was overturned and, at the second time of asking, Merseyside Police Professional Standards Department provided the following truly honest and accurate assessment of the situation –
“Whilst [Patrick] accepts that he is intoxicated and he is in a public place, I do not believe, from what is shown on body worn footage that his conduct amounted or met the definition of behaving in a disorderly manner and discretion could have been afforded to avoid an arrest.
It is further noted that the behaviour of an individual that could be seen in the background of the footage is far more problematic in displaying further signs of disorderly behaviour than [Patrick], and yet [the other individual] is not stopped or questioned further regarding his behaviour ………… in summary, the grounds to conduct a search was sufficient, however any subsequent actions including the detention and arrest were unreasonable.”
It was determined that it was necessary for PC Barry to “receive learning” in relation to his powers of arrest.
Over the course of the next 12 months, with my expert assistance through the civil claims process, Patrick went from this situation –
1. The mental trauma of a wrongful arrest
2. Having his data associated with both the “stop and search” and the arrest
3. Having his legitimate complaint completely rejected.
To this –
1. Having his complaint against the Officer upheld
2. Receiving a letter of apology from the Deputy Chief Constable
3. Receiving a formal admission of liability for wrongful arrest and assault
4. Obtaining expert evidence to establish and quantify the psychological harm caused by this incident
5. Winning £22,250 damages (over three times the amount first offered by the Police), plus his legal costs
6. Deletion of all data associated with his unlawful arrest from Police computer systems.
It is the attitude of officers like PC Barry which is that the heart of the problem here, and which leads to so many unlawful arrests for this type of offence. Policing the ‘night time economy’ should not permit authoritarian menacing of innocent, intoxicated revellers – but all too often it is seen to by Police Officers who take the name of an offence in vain (“drunk and disorderly conduct”) in order to assert power over somebody who has done nothing more than give them a bit of lip or refuse their unlawful demand for details – or, in other words, infringed the officer’s inflated ego.
Annoying an impatient officer is not a criminal offence – but PC Barry tried to turn it into one under the false label of “Disorderly Conduct”.
My client’s name has been changed.
Post script
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Contact the Expert Police Misconduct Solicitor
If you believe you may have been unlawfully arrested by the Police, please contact me here for advice.
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