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The incident occurred near Dorridge train station, Solihull yesterday morning.
The Officer was with a colleague and part of their duties was to ensure people were adhering to Covid restrictions.
The man arrested explained how he was walking to work when the officers arrested him. This was clearly a justified reason to be outside and the man shouldn’t have been approached in such a manner since there was no suspicion of any offence being committed.
West Midlands released a statement on their twitter page stating that “It’s clear that the officers conduct fell far below what we would expect… His manner was not acceptable, not the face of West Midlands Police, and we will deal with the situation.”
The police officer has accepted his behaviour was not up to standard. West Midlands Police will address the issue as part of an ‘action plan’ for the officers ‘learning and development’.
No specific mention from West Midlands Police as to whether the officer will be suspended or face any disciplinary action. Many have taken to social media to call for the officer to be suspended for such an abuse of power.
This isn’t an uncommon occurrence. A large number of officers all over the country have been exploiting their new found powers and innocent members of the public have been on the receiving end far too often.
It’s clear that many officers lack training on how to deal with Covid regulations and lockdown restrictions. Many officers are not even fully aware of the changes with certain regulations which is quite concerning for members of the public.
