Police Force?

Jordan Walker Brown, a 26 year old was fleeing from the police in Haringey, North London, and had scaled a wall to escape, when he was tasered by a police officer.

Police Tasers - The Alternative To Guns

He fell and hurt his back, and was left paralysed from the waist down. The police officer was later charged with Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH), and it went to a court case. 

Now this charge on a police officer, raised once again the question of whether we as a society can authorise the police to use force, or not, to stop suspected criminals who are escaping justice, or just avoiding questioning, and even against those caught whilst committing an actual crime?

I would argue that persons committing criminal acts, or fleeing the police for any reason, forfeit the right to complain about the outcomes of any methods used to detain or arrest them, but that is a personal view. In my view if a person is fleeing the police, then they are possibly preventing justice being served, so why should a good police officer face disciplinary action, dismissal, or even prison, simply for trying to do their job?

Now, the government guidance to both the police and public, is that the police can approach a member of the public, but the public don’t have to stop, or answer any police questions. If they don’t, and there’s no other reason to suspect them, then this action alone can’t be used as a reason by police to stop, search, or arrest them. 

However, if the police have ‘reasonable grounds’ to suspect the person is carrying:

• illegal drugs.
• a weapon.
• stolen property.
• or something which could be used to commit a crime, such as a crowbar. 

And also, exceptionally, if a senior police officer approves the stop and search. 

It wasn't clear in the limited press reports, on exactly what grounds the police officer was approaching Mr Walker Brown .... but as this didn't form part of the prosecution, I have to assume that the approach and subsequent chase were both legal.

The prosecutions case was that Mr Walker Brown was unarmed, fleeing, and posed no immediate threat to the police officer, so the force used i.e. the taser, was unreasonable in the circumstances. The defence case was that PC Mahmood feared that Walker Brown might be armed, and had warned the suspect that they were police with tasers, and that he had to stop running .... when this didn't get compliance, he had used his taser to prevent him escaping. The fact that Walker Brown then fell badly, resulting in serious injury, was purely an accident (that wouldn't have happened at all, if Mr Walker Brown had obeyed the police request to stop running). 

In May 2023 (3 years after the events), the trial came to a conclusion at Southwark Crown Court, with Police constable Mahmood accused of unlawfully inflicting grievous bodily harm on Jordan Walker-Brown. After nine and half hours deliberations, he was found Not Guilty by a jury. As both the police officer and Walker Brown were both from ethnic minorities, there was no public disturbance following the verdict, which some members of 'the community' didn't like. 

At the end of the day, if requested to stop by a police officer, its probably what a good honest citizen would do, and I suspect that this was something that the jury considered in this case.