Dramatic developments in the case of 24-year-old Mohamud Hassan's after the IOPC served a Regulation 17 notice on a South Wales Police officer concerning their arrest of Mr Hassan's on 8th January 2021.
The IOPC notice relates to potential serious misconduct giving credence to the Hassan family's accusation that something happened to Mohamud Hassan either during his arrest or detention by the police.
This officer accompanied Mr Hassan to Cardiff Bay custody unit in the rear of a police van on his way to Cardiff Police Station. Mohamud complained to this officer and was clearly in both pain and distress yet was ignored. This information was not passed on to the custody sergeant when he arrived at the police station.
This new information raises the serious question of what occurred at the point of arrest. It is widely believed that Mohamud was subject to violent arrest by South Wales Police officers an assertion that has been continually denied by the authorities.
Given these developments, its is now critical that South Wales Police suspended this officer with immediate effect pending the investigation. There should be no prevarication or delay in doing so as any resistance will undoubtedly be seen as a direct provocation by the local community.
This critical development fundamentally undermines the IOPC's and Chief Constable of South Wales Police, Jeremy Vaughan's initial press statements that sought to reassure the public or calm rising tensions that there was no case to answer in response to the accusation that South Wales Police were in any way responsible for Mohamed's death.
The IOPC issued a press release stating that "preliminary indications" show that Mohamud had not suffered any physical trauma that could have potentially resulted in his death on the 12th January 2021.
The Chief Constable press statement on the 15th January 2021 said,
"...we did not do this because we thought that police officers had done anything wrong, but because it was the right thing to do, to give an independent view on the decisions that we made and the actions that
we took."
Given these statements, the credibility of both organisations is now in severe and dire jeopardy. The serving of this notice means the community, will be rightly outraged. The demand for real accountability and transparency in this case now becomes urgent.
Indeed in the light of this information, there can be no option but for the IOPC to release all police bodycam and CCTV footage of Hassan to his family immediately.
It is vitally important that this investigation sets new standards of openness and transparency.
With public confide policing and the IOPC being at an all-time low, with the growing demand for radical reform in relation to independent police investigations, these revelations will reinforce our determination to secure justice for Mohamud.
Remember 52 officers came into contact with Mohamud in ten hours. One down 51 to go.
Now is the time to increase or demands. Suspend the Officer. Release the bodycam footage.
Update: The IOPC in response to this blog has updated their press release to say that even if the officer was to be found guilty of misconduct the most that could happen is a written warning. Here again, we see the IOPC working hard to damped community anger whilst seeking to minimise potential disciplinary sanctions. There is an obvious bias here, if as they say they have yet to investigate interview the officer and have updated the pathologist, how is it they can determine the seriousness of the offence and range of possible sanctions, given this officer's actions cannot be properly judged in isolation from the chain of events that preceded Mohamud's arrest or the pathologist feedback?