Police to review use of handcuffs after athlete’s stop and search trauma

Met chief orders inquiry into restraining procedure after issuing apology to Team GB medal winner

A REVIEW of the use of handcuffs has been ordered by the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police after a Team GB athlete was subjected to a stop and search at the weekend.

Dame Cressida Dick sent an apology to Bianca Williams, the 26-year-old sprinter who won gold medals at the European Championships and Commonwealth Games, for the distress caused and said her force would learn lessons from the incident.

Ms Williams and her Portuguese sprinter boyfriend, Ricardo Dos Santos, were stopped by police in west London on Saturday and handcuffed while being questioned and searched.

Her three-month-old son was in the car and the incident was filmed on a mobile phone. They have since accused the Met Police of racial profiling and the matter has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Appearing before the home affairs select committee, Dame Cressida said two of her officers had spoken to Ms Williams and had apologised. She said: “I think all of us watching could empathise with someone who is stopped in a vehicle who has a young child in the back [and] who does not probably know exactly what is going on and is subsequently found, along with her partner, not to be carrying any illicit goods.

“We apologised yesterday and I apologise again for the distress that this stop clearly caused her.”

In a weekend statement, the Met claimed the couple’s Mercedes was being driven in a suspicious manner and insisted there was no misconduct by officers. Helen Ball, the assistant commissioner, said: “We reviewed the video and believe we did not see misconduct.”

Dame Cressida has also announced a review into the use of handcuffs amid concern that there had been a large increase in their unjustified use.

Yvette Cooper, who chaired the select committee, said data suggested a fivefold increase in the use of handcuffs over three years, with young black people disproportionately affected.

Dame Cressida said she ordered the review as she did not want officers using handcuffs as a “default position”.

Asked by Tim Loughton MP what the justification was to cuff the couple when a child was in the car, she said: “I don’t want, and I don’t believe I do, run a police service in which handcuffing is routine. It must always be justified.”

Responding to suggestions that the Met still had a problem with racial discrimination, Dame Cressida said: “I think we have come an enormous way.

“If you want to call us institutionally racist that is a matter for you. It is not a label I find helpful. I don’t think we are collectively failing in all the ways described in Miss Williams’s definition.”