Demeaning strip searches, unlawful arrests and victims retraumatised by police, report says

A damning report has found officers at Greater Manchester Police are abusing their power – making unlawful arrests, unlawful and demeaning strip searches, sometimes treating victims as perpetrators, and traumatising those who have suffered sexual abuse or domestic violence.

The Baird Inquiry was launched in response to a Sky News investigation into GMP’s treatment of three women in custody in one police station but has broadened to look at problems in all but one of Greater Manchester’s police stations.

It says officers are “using their power unwisely, unnecessarily, and sometimes unlawfully”.

Having assessed the actions of numerous officers during several arrests and detentions, Dame Vera writes: “If these officers are examples of the culture in GMP it seems to be one of exercising power they don’t have, as and when they wish, without expecting to be held to account for it.

“Without this inquiry none of these issues would have been held up to the light of public scrutiny. That is a worrying possibility.”

Part of the reason this has been allowed to happen is because of an ineffective complaints system described by the review as “evasive, defensive or aggressive in tone and rejecting any police error”.

Chief Constable Stephen Watson has promised immediate action and apologised for what he describes as “incivility, insensitivity, compounded by a lack of routine leadership, scrutiny, and individual examples of low standards, poor behaviour, insensitivity, and a lack of care in the face of vulnerability”.

Unlawful arrests ‘may be endemic’

The report is particularly concerned about a readiness of police to criminalise women who have been the victims of male violence. Dame Vera notes that three of the 15 complainants she assesses in her report were victims of domestic abuse and there were also survivors of sexual abuse.

She says: “Each case illustrates a gross and perplexing imbalance between the police response to the complainant’s behaviour and the response, if any, to the perpetrators abuse.”

The report suggests unlawful arrests “may be endemic in GMP” possibly influenced by decisions made at the most senior level. It states: “The strategic priority to increase arrests may be driving unwise and unlawful arrests.”

GMP has been on a drive to increase the number of arrests since it was placed under “special measures” in December 2020 after a report revealed an estimated 80,000 crimes had not been properly recorded.

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‘Back to basics’ approach may come with nasty side effects

Chief Constable Watson’s “back to basics” approach has been hailed as turning things around. But the Baird Inquiry warns it may come with nasty side effects.

She says: “It sometimes appears as if as soon as an officer has the first scent that an offence has been committed, they immediately move to arrest.

“May this be the impact of the strategic priority to increase the number of arrests? May it be due to lack of judgement or insufficient training? Is it a lack of empathy with the public?”

This potential lack of empathy seems to be at play in custody suites. The report notes detainees being denied their medication or basic personal necessities, like toilet paper and sanitary protection, or access to suitable toilet facilities. The strip searches are described as “deeply injurious” and says “GMP is not observing the few rules there are,” concluding that “urgent change is needed”.

All those strip searched in inquiry ‘because of a power trip’

Dame Vera finds that often no reason for a strip search was given and they are frequently unrecorded in the custody records. She says: “All of the people in this inquiry who were strip searched in GMP custody are sure that it was because of some variant on a power trip.”

The report recommends that strip searches done for “welfare reasons” are phased out completely within six months – and searching for concealed items should be done with airport-style screening devices to “eradicate degrading strip searching from police practice as much as possible”.

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The 15 people the inquiry focuses on are mostly women, four of whose cases were raised by Sky News. Their stories make disturbing reading.

Dame Vera says: “Some of the arrests in this inquiry seem to emerge from a reversal of reality, when a victim or someone trying to protect or support a victim is arrested for the smallest misdemeanour, while there is little investigation into the suspected serious offender.”

Woman trying to report sex crime arrested and strip searched

One example is the case of a young woman, brought to the inquiry by Sky News, called Dannika Stewart who had originally gone to the police to report a sexual crime against another person. But, with no apparent credible evidence, the police arrested her based on a counter-allegation by the alleged sex offender.

Dannika believes she was arrested because she had made an official complaint about police inaction and revealed that she had recorded a senior officer admitting to failings in the sexual offence investigation.

She was arrested in what Dame Vera describes as “a pantomime.” Having viewed the body worn video she says: “Though the police officer’s statement says they were trying to calm things down, they called Dannika a ‘knobhead’ and told her that she was ‘boring’.

“Dannika was taken into a cell and told to ‘strip or be stripped’ says the report, adding: “Dannika took off her upper garments, trousers, and knickers, so that she was naked. She was not given a blanket for modesty and says one officer was staring at her breasts.

Strip search was neither explained, justified nor reported

Dame Vera says: “The strip search was neither explained, justified nor reported,” adding that Dannika turned from victim to suspect “based on almost nothing”.

Later the report says: “She kept asking for her medication, but the police turned the cell buzzer off.”

Dame Vera says: “I was never aware of any evidence against Dannika. I am told there was ‘intelligence’, but the police had her phone number, and no blackmail message was sent from it.”

She adds: “Abusers are well-known for being manipulative, and this alleged abuser had everything to gain, if the woman, driving the police against him, could be compromised.”

Dame Vera says Dannika’s arrest was “unlawful” and police video also shows she was subjected to an inappropriately handled interview and “manhandled” when she tried to leave.

The report concludes: “Few victims of sexual abuse report it to the police, and the way this case was handled by GMP makes that entirely understandable.”

Partner who reported domestic abuse made to strip

In another case first raised by Sky News last year, Dame Vera explores the arrest of a young women, ‘Maria’ (not her real name).

She went to the police station after her partner was arrested and detained following an alleged domestic violence attack against her. She needed to get money and keys from the detained man and made calls to the police for help after being unable to access the station.

Dame Vera says: “She explained it all and was passed to someone else, explained it again – each time revisiting the abuse she had just suffered.

“She was repeatedly told that someone would contact her, but nobody did. The pattern didn’t change, hour after hour, until eventually she rang, sobbing and angry.”

Maria later faced a charge of malicious communications for these calls. Dame Vera observes: “It is arguable that few people would not have been driven to swear at some point in these calls.”

Not only was Maria a recent victim of domestic abuse, the officers had also learned from another force that she was a historic victim of rape.

Even so, she was strip searched “ostensibly in search of the vape she dropped out of her trousers in the police station yard, and because of the other police force’s officer’s reference to her ‘concealing things’.”

‘If I was a man, I don’t think they would have done it’

The report says: “Maria describes being told to take all her clothes off and, when completely naked, to open the lips of her vagina so the police could see inside and to bend over and open her anal area similarly. She felt humiliated and demeaned.”

Speaking to Sky News last year and quoted in the report, Maria says: “The only reason they did what they did was to degrade me… If I was a man, I don’t think they would’ve done it. I was treated like a piece of meat”.

Police made their notes about the strip search authorisation two hours after it happened, and Dame Vera believes they deliberately left out information of her being a survivor of sexual abuse in their report.

Dame Vera says: “I am quite satisfied that this arrest was unlawful, failing both on the grounds that it was not necessary, but even more fundamentally, because the officer had no reasonable grounds for suspecting that Maria had committed the offence of malicious communication.”

Having listened to recordings of Maria’s calls, Dame Vera says that the police call handlers were “bureaucratic and unhelpful”, and “failed utterly, in their duty of care to her”. For example, no attempt was made to connect her to an officer dealing with her domestic violence case, or to a local domestic abuse charity.

Police readily criminalise traumatised women

Dame Vera adds: “It also highlights how police readily criminalise traumatised women, who express frustration with the police response.”

Sky News can reveal that despite all of these findings, Maria is still due to appear in court, charged with the alleged malicious communications offence.

Stories of other detainees are equally shocking with one female, named ‘Paige’ “brutalised” by an overzealous strip search involving six female officers where she is left complaining of aching ribs, and a swollen face. Having viewed the footage, Dame Vera says: “She ends up totally naked, and I am not surprised if she is bruised because it seems a rough experience.”

Three men also tell of their experiences including Mark Dove (named in the report as Matthew) who, as previously reported on Sky News, says he kept himself warm with the hot water tap in the cell after being left naked for eight hours following a strip search.

Dame Vera asks if man was stripped because he was annoying officer

During 10 hours of detention, he was also not given anything to eat or drink. In her report Dame Vera questions whether Mr Dove was stripped because he was annoying an officer by refusing to answer questions.

The custody officer told Mr Dove: “You are totally pissing me off”. He walked away, returning with three male officers who marched Matthew to a cell, clearly telling him that he was having his clothes removed.”

She says: “I can see no lawful justification for forcing Matthew to remove his clothes. It shouldn’t be ordered because the custody sergeant is ‘pissed off’, especially as it follows the very questionable authorisation of Matthew’s detention.”

Another person who also spoke to the inquiry and spoke to Sky News was Zayna Iman, who alleged she was drugged and sexually assaulted while being held in custody.

The report makes a series of recommendations including that the use of strip searching for welfare reasons be replaced by better observations of the detainee, and that officers should be better trained to manage the effects of domestic and sexual trauma on survivors.

She suggests a dip-sampling panel examine the quality of interrogation and scrutiny applied by custody officers to the facts that underpin reasons for arrests.

Complaints system leaves police unaccountable

Sky News has followed the cases of many of the complainants in this inquiry and one thing that unites them is a failing complaints system which appears to leave no one held accountable for their actions.

Dame Vera says: “It seems critical, from the experience of the complaints handling in this inquiry, that further independent involvement and lay oversight are brought into GMP complaints management as quickly as possible.”

Responding to the inquiry findings, complainant Dannika Stuart told Sky News: “It feels very overwhelming. It’s something I will never forget.

“Dame Vera will always hold a special place in my heart,” she added.

Responding to the report, Chief Constable Stephen Watson said: “The issues raised in Dame Vera’s report speaks to a period when our custody system was under pressure and not performing to an acceptable standard.

“It evidences poor systems, structures, and incivility, insensitivity, compounded by a lack of routine leadership, scrutiny, and individual examples of low standards, poor behaviour, insensitivity, and a lack of care in the face of vulnerability.

“These issues are of the utmost importance and highlight the need to maintain the highest professional standards. These must reflect our duty, and moral obligation, to respect and uphold the dignity of all detainees but with a particular focus on women and girls.

“We accept the recommendations in this report. We commit to implementing them fully and faithfully with a view to making lasting improvements.”

What does GMP say?

GMP says it has already introduced the following changes:

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