Enfield crime squad used ‘excessive force’

Six Metropolitan Police officers have been found guilty of misconduct for using excessive force while stopping a suspect, writes Channel 4 News Home Affairs Correspondent Simon Israel.

Five constables and a detective sergeant armed with baseball bats and pick axe handles smashed their way into a car during the arrest of an unarmed driver in north London.

Some have likened the incident to infamous Rodney King attack which provoked riots in Los Angeles.

A misconduct panel found all six had breached the regulations governing police behaviour. The detective sergeant was demoted to the rank of detective constable, while the others have been formally reprimanded.

Six Metropolitan Police officers have been found guilty of misconduct for using excessive force while stopping a suspect.

Inadequate supervision

The panel found that the detective sergeant failed to properly supervise five officers by allowing them to use baseball bats and a pickaxe handle to carry out the stop and detain the driver, instead of using approved methods and equipment.

You do not expect to see police officers smashing a car with a baseball bat. Deborah Glass, IPCC deputy chair

The five other officers were found to have used more force than was reasonable or necessary to affect the stop by using a non-issue baseball bat, hitting the rear offside window causing it to smash.

The misconduct hearing follows an investigation managed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

IPCC Deputy Chair Deborah Glass said: “Officers acting in this way bring the police service into disrepute. You do not expect to see police officers smashing a car with a baseball bat.

“Whatever the threat they claimed to experience, their actions should be proportionate and reasonable – which in this case they plainly weren’t. They breached their codes of professional conduct and their actions were far below the standards rightly expected of police officers by the public.”

Operation Sumaq

The findings follow a 10-month covert surveillance operation by the Metropolitan Police’s anti-corruption command into the methods of the Enfield crime squad.

Codenamed Operation Sumaq, detectives interviewed a total of 16 officers and one member of police staff, in what the Met described as a complicated inquiry involving 43 specific incidents.

Eight officers were suspended and two placed on restricted duties.

The inquiry found that the squad, which was run out of Edmonton police station in north London, had created their own identity, issued themselves with their own uniforms and adopted their own rules of engagement.

‘Procedures flouted and breached’

The Crown Prosecution Service announced last December there would be no criminal charges arising out of the investigation into not just the car incident but other allegations. However, it added in a statement: “It is clear that internal police procedures were flouted and breached on a regular basis. But we cannot prosecute members of a squad unless we can show to the criminal standard that they acted dishonestly.”

We cannot prosecute members of a squad unless we can show to the criminal standard that they acted dishonestly. Crown Prosecution Service statement

Today’s panel verdicts relate to the arrest of Jonathan Billinghurst (then aged 19) when he left work at Ikea’s furniture store in Enfield to drive home one evening in June 2008.

A DVD played to the disciplinary panel shows six officers emerging from unmarked police cars brandishing baseballs bats and wearing non-regulation jackets with the words “Crime Squad” printed on the back.

Windows in the car, which police suspected of having been stolen, were smashed and Mr Billinghurst was dragged from the vehicle bleeding and kicked before being handcuffed behind his back.

The teenager was unarmed at the time. He was later convicted of driving without a licence and handling stolen goods.

Commander Peter Spindler, of the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards, said: “The behaviour displayed by the six officers that day was unacceptable and as such the board has rightly sanctioned them for it.

“The officers abused their position of trust and authority and by doing so breached the high professional standards expected by the public and the vast majority of outstanding MPS officers and staff who carry out their service to the public with professionalism and integrity.

“Any allegations of behaviour that is contrary to the police regulations will be thoroughly investigated and if appropriate officers will be put before a misconduct hearing to answer for their actions.”

Further disciplinary proceedings are planned in relation to the alleged distribution of unclaimed stolen property among staff at Edmonton Police station.