Correct procedures were followed during custody of man killed in road accident after release
11 Apr 2014 02:38 PM
An investigation into the
custody of a man who died after being hit and killed by a car shortly after
being released from custody has found that none of the West Yorkshire Police
(WYP) officers who dealt with him breached their professional standards of
behaviour.
Simon Clifford, of Bradford, West Yorkshire, was
arrested at his home at 9.30pm on 28 October 2012 for a breach of the peace
following a domestic dispute.
Mr
Clifford, 47, was taken into custody at Keighley police station at 10.05pm and
released at 2.59am the next day. He was found by a police patrol car at 3.23am
after being knocked down by a taxi in Bradford Road, Keighley, and was
pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
The
IPCC investigation examined the actions of three police
officers and three civilian detention officers.
A
risk assessment and Police National Computer (PNC) check was carried out before
Mr Clifford was booked into custody. There were no warning markers on Mr
Clifford’s details. He refused to answer questions about alcohol intake
or his health.
He
was placed in a cell covered by a CCTV camera and checked every 30 minutes. A
custody officer told the IPCC that at 11.13pm she was asked to visit Mr
Clifford in his cell to tell him that he would be released if he agreed to go
to his mother’s address, an offer that was refused. This offer was later
repeated and refused again.
A
pre-release assessment was carried out before Mr Clifford was released with no
further action being taken against him. He was not considered to be vulnerable
and had declined to wait to see a medical professional about a headache he had
complained of. There were also no signs he had consumed alcohol, was injured or
had mental health issues.
The
IPCC found no case to answer for the officers investigated and no areas of
learning were identified.
An
inquest in February 2014 recorded that Mr Clifford had died as a result of a
road accident.
Cindy Butts, the IPCC Commissioner for West Yorkshire,
said: “The close proximity to Mr Clifford’s release from custody
and his being struck by a taxi meant that
an independent investigation had to be carried out by
the IPCC, and we were determined to find out exactly what happened to Mr
Clifford. This will have been a traumatic experience for his family and I
extend my sympathies to them. There were, however, no breaches of custody
guidelines or policy identified by
our investigation.”