A trainee police officer, PC Holt, has been dismissed due to her ‘excessive and illegal’ use of CS spray during a pub brawl.
The incident occurred at Ye Golden Lion, Market Street, Blackley, just before 11 pm on 24th July 2020.
PC Holt was trying to break up a fight involving around 30 people. She claimed that her actions were in response to a man she believed was about to attack her with a glass.
Her subsequent use of CS spray was an attempt to diffuse the situation. However, her accounts of the events differed from those that took place outside the pub, in custody, and in her report.
The incident led to the arrest of a man on suspicion of affray. He was later released in November 2020 with no further action.
PC Holt’s inconsistent stories led to a five-day disciplinary hearing at the GMP’s Force HQ.
The hearing found that her actions violated professional standards of honesty and integrity at a level of gross misconduct, resulting in her immediate dismissal.
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Rising Trend of Inexperienced Police Officers
The incident highlights a growing concern about the inexperience of many police officers in England and Wales.
As of March 2023, 36% of all police officers in England and Wales, equivalent to 53,774 individuals, had less than two years of service.
This figure represents an increasing trend, as in 2017, only 31% of all police officers, or 42,719 officers, were within the same service bracket.
Misconduct Hearing Findings
The misconduct hearing panel, led by Legally Qualified Chair Warren Spencer, concluded that PC Holt’s use of CS spray in a confined space and without warning was ‘excessive, not proportionate, legal, or necessary’.
PC Holt was thus dismissed for excessive use of force, operational dishonesty, integrity breaches, and discreditable conduct.
Her description of events was found to be ‘untrue, exaggerated, and embellished’.
The panel found that she “discharged her spray with no attempt at communication or instruction. Its use was not necessary, reasonable, or proportionate.”
She also discharged it from less than the recommended one-meter distance.
Since the incident, PC Holt has been on restricted duties. Following her dismissal, she will also be added to the College of Policing Barred List.
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It is unclear if PC Holt was on her own. If she was, she was expected as a lone female to break up a brawl involving 30 people. Spraying the whole unruly lot of them with CS seems like quite a sensible idea to me. How was she to know that they would not turn on her?
Perhaps she could have dealt with it differently. What is missing in this account is the testimony of fellow officers. Perhaps there were not any. So here we have a lone female taking on 30 violent drunks who probably felt that their actions were perfectly justified and may or may not have told the unvarnished truth.
This is representative of a deeper malaise within the police force. How quickly are you going to respond to a job such as this if you might very well end up being fired? Far better arrive once it has all died down and make a vague effort to pick up the pieces. This is how the French police operate and as a result, are wholly disrespected, if not actively disliked, by the French public. Our police force is going the same way.
Start a large punch up and you WILL get gassed, tazed and with any luck, bitten by a police dog before being locked up.
The alternative is to deal with affray the same way as ‘minor’ crime like shoplifting, burglary and the rest. Just ignore it. You should carry insurance. You have paid for it so you may as well use it.