The claimant was a young epileptic and autistic adult. On a supervised trip to a swimming pool, he became fascinated by the water, and the pool staff called the police. Through the police misunderstanding his needs, he ended up first in the water and then being forcibly restrained. The commissioner now appealed against the findings or assault.
Held: The appeal failed. At no point had the officers sought advice from those having care of the claimant or from the pool staff.
Lord Dyson MR said: ‘operational discretion is important to the police. … It has been recognised by the European court: see Austin v United Kingdom 55 EHRR 14, para 56. And I have kept it well in mind in writing this judgment. But operational discretion is not sacrosanct. It cannot be invoked by the police in order to give them immunity from liability for everything that they do.’
Judges:
Lord Dyson MR, Richards, Black LJJ
Citations:
[2013] EWCA Civ 69, [2013] MHLR 69, (2013) 16 CCL Rep 109, [2013] HRLR 18, [2013] PIQR P11, [2013] Eq LR 363, [2013] 1 WLR 3021, [2013] 3 All ER 113, [2013] WLR(D) 66
Links:
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Roberts, Regina (on the application of) v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis and another SC 17-Dec-2015
The Court considered the validity of suspicionless stop and search activities under s 60 of the 1994 Act, by police officers.
Held: The claimant’s appeal failed. The safeguards attending the use of the s 60 power, and in particular the . .
Cited – DB v Chief Constable of Police Service of Northern Ireland SC 1-Feb-2017
The appellant said that the police Service of Northern Ireland had failed properly to police the ‘flags protest’ in 2012 and 2013. The issue was not as to the care and effort taken, but an alleged misunderstanding of their powers.
Held: Treacy . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Police, Torts – Other
Updated: 10 July 2022; Ref: scu.470967