A former volunteer police officer has been dismissed from duty after a panel ruled he had used excessive force when arresting a member of the public.
Special Inspector Chris Smith resigned from his role in October last year and failed to attend the two-day hearing where the panel found his conduct to have amounted to gross misconduct.
According to the panel, the incident occurred while Mr Smith was on patrol in Bedford during the early hours of 18 December 2021.
He and his colleagues came across two men whom they had earlier moved on for causing public disorder and arrested them for being drunk and disorderly.
During the arrest, Mr Smith repeatedly struck one of the men on the knee with a baton. Later, he swore in a threatening manner at the other detained man while he was being transported to a police station.
Despite having 30 years of experience as a police officer before retiring in 2019, Mr Smith’s use of the baton and lack of leadership to junior colleagues were deemed to have constituted gross misconduct for Use of Force and Authority, Respect, and Courtesy.
He was also found to have breached the Standards of Professional Behaviour for Authority, Respect, and Courtesy in relation to his threatening manner towards the second member of the public.
The panel ruled that Mr Smith would have faced dismissal if he had not already resigned from his role. “Special Inspector Smith had served as a police officer for 30 years and it was commendable that he had decided to serve as a special police officer during the unprecedented demands of the pandemic,” said Panel Chair Monica Daley-Campbell.
“However, this did not in any way lessen the requirements on him in his role or the need to adhere to the standards of behaviour. He had a special duty to those junior officers, whom he had leadership of, to set the right tone for the future of policing.”
In addition to his dismissal, Mr Smith will also be placed on the barred list.
