Rick Prior, the vice chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, has released a statement after two officers were sacked from the Met without notice following a six-week misconduct hearing that found two officers gave false statements about smelling cannabis after Ms Williams and Mr dos Santos were stopped and searched in central London.
On 4th July 2020, officers from the Met’s Territorial Support Group (TSG) noticed a vehicle with blacked-out windows which was being driven erratically in Maida Vale, London.
Officers were patrolling the area after an increase in violent crime. As reported at the time, the officers spotted a vehicle with tinted windows being driven on the wrong side of the road.
It was alleged that the officers spotted the ethnicity of the driver of the car and that the stop and search was initiated because of this. However, this allegation was found not proven.
As they attempted to catch up with the car, it made off from them at speed. The vehicle stopped, and after a few seconds, the TSG’ carrier’ caught up with it.
It was alleged that the officer driving the carrier had initiated a pursuit that he was not authorised to do and that the vehicle being driven by dos Santos was ‘boxed in’. However, the panel found this allegation not proven.
Officers exited the police carrier, not knowing who was inside the vehicle or whether it might attempt to make off from them again.
Inside the car was Bianca Williams and her partner, along with their 3-month-old son.
Ms Williams recorded the point at which officers tried to secure the vehicle and its occupants on her mobile phone before uploading the footage to social media. The partial clip of the incident soon went viral.
In placing dos Santos in cuffs, it was alleged that excessive force had been used. Again, the panel found this allegation not proven.
Shortly after the incident, the Met released the following statement:
‘At around 13:25hrs on Saturday, 4th July, officers from the Territorial Support Group were patrolling in the W9 area in response to an increase in violence involving weapons.
‘Officers witnessed a vehicle that was being driven in a manner that raised suspicion, heavily braking and accelerating, which included driving on the wrong side of the road. They indicated for it to stop, but it failed to do so and accelerated off.
‘The officers caught up with the vehicle when it stopped on Lanhill Road.
‘The driver initially refused to get out of the car.
‘The occupants, a 25-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman, were informed that they were being detained for the purposes of a search under Section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.
‘They were both handcuffed due to the officers’ views, which took into account the manner in which the vehicle was being driven, that the vehicle was attempting to evade police, and due to the driver refusing to leave his vehicle.
‘Following a search of the vehicle, the man and the woman, nothing was found. No arrests were made, and the occupants were allowed on their way.”
Speaking about the panel’s findings, Mr Prior posted on X:
‘We continue to support the two officers dismissed after yesterday’s extremely disappointing GM panel findings and we have been in detailed discussions with the officers’ legal team today concerning appealing the two adverse decisions.
‘Before I commented on this matter, I wanted to read the panel’s Summary of Findings, which I did this afternoon.
‘The vast majority of allegations against all officers were found to be unproven and were rejected.
‘Allegations pertaining to honesty & integrity were found proven against two of the officers in relation to the smell of cannabis.
‘The stop and search was lawful, and the search [was] carried out under s1 PACE and not s23 MDA – so there was little to no advantage to provide an additional search ground in respect of the use of drugs – a point conceded by the panel.
‘No complaints or allegations pertaining to race discrimination were upheld against any of the officers concerned.
‘The IOPC’s statement is therefore highly misleading and supports the view that they are a politically influenced and partisan organisation.
‘Couple of interesting points on the panel’s conclusions…
1. They discounted the possibility that any of the officers could have been mistaken about identifying the odour as cannabis.
2. They accepted that there had or may have been a smell of cannabis but that this came from a source which was not from the complainants or their vehicle; examples provided by the panel being a passer-by, a vehicle or nearby building.
3. Having conceded point 2, they still found that the two officers were untruthful in stating that they smelt cannabis.
4. Allegations that two of the other officers did not smell cannabis were found not proven.
‘The officers’ Fed Rep has done and continues to do a fantastic job in supporting these officers. We will continue to support him and the two dismissed officers until all possible avenues of appeal have been exhausted.’
As of the time of publishing this article, a JustGiving page – set up to assist the families of the officers had raised nearly £50,000. The author of the page noted:
‘This page has been created in order to support two former Metropolitan Police Officers who on the 25th October 2023 were dismissed without notice.
‘PC Jonathan Clapham and PC Sam Franks.
This comes at a time of great austerity where both will be affected by mortgage payments, food bills and general cost of living.
‘Despite people’s personal views on this decision; this page has been created to solely support the officers and their families at this difficult time. So please refrain from airing them on this platform. Every penny will go to the support of the Officers and their families. Any support will be greatly received and appreciated.’
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I believe there’s an air of justification and fear of consequential actions from the public regarding any complaints from them (anybody) from the powers that be nowadays and this will effect people doing their jobs and their families in a negative way. This has got to stop. Common sense has to prevail and more training given instead of kneejerk reactions that result in destroying people’s lives as well as their mental health.
Majority of the police are incompetent and completely brainwashed in there cult
Legal gangsters
They just don’t want to be wrong or think there never wrong and are money makers of us all the public for there corrupt company- The police force