It's Not That They Arrested The Wrong Man

[Tannedbaldhead]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotl...

We all make mistakes but what puzzled me in this case was that there were officers who knew full well they were holding the wrong man and yet continued to hold him.

Can the BiBs who post here explain the thought processes of a senior officer when a colleague confides "I'm certain we've got the wrong guy here" and the reply is "I know but we're going to have to cuff him, lock him up and hold on to him for a bit anyway".

[anonymous-user]

The paper says "quality of service issue" so a bit like finding a loaf of moldy bread in your shopping....

[CypSIdders]

Tannedbaldhead said:

Can the BiBs who post here explain the thought processes of a senior officer when a colleague confides "I'm certain we've got the wrong guy here" and the reply is "I know but we're going to have to cuff him, lock him up and hold on to him for a bit anyway".

Have "Bad apples" and "lessons will be learned" been trotted out yet?
Ranks will be closed, no one saw or heard anything and many will swear black is white, it's happened so many times before, why would you expect anything else.

[Dibble]

Tannedbaldhead said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotl...

We all make mistakes but what puzzled me in this case was that there were officers who knew full well they were holding the wrong man and yet continued to hold him.

Can the BiBs who post here explain the thought processes of a senior officer when a colleague confides "I'm certain we've got the wrong guy here" and the reply is "I know but we're going to have to cuff him, lock him up and hold on to him for a bit anyway".

I’ve no idea of the thought processes of those involved. It sounds like a complete balls up if I’m honest, albeit that the a police in Scotland have different powers, so I’m only guessing. The only possible reason I can think of for arresting him (even if he had ID documents, as it’s not unknown for them to be fraudulently obtained or forged) would be to possibly confirm his ID by fingerprints, either by matching to the person they were looking for, or not. That’s a bit tricky if the person they were actually looking for isn’t on the national FP database.

One thing I’d take (slight) issue with in the article is that compensation being paid = admission of liability, because it doesn’t always equate. It’s sometimes cheaper to make a payout (without an admission), rather than spend the money on fighting it and winning (if the payout is £100,000 but the costs of defending the action were £200,000 then it’s cheaper to just pay out).