Risk assessment probe into Wycombe hit-and-run (From Bucks Free Press)

Risk assessment probe into Wycombe hit-and-run

3:37pm Friday 13th November 2009 in News By Oliver Evans

A POLICE watchdog is probing whether officers carried out a risk assessment and “considered their options” before pursuing a van which later hit a pedestrian.

The Independent Complaints Commission today made its first public statement on the hit-and-run collision in Oxford Road on Wednesday of last week.

A 58-year-old man is still in a serious condition in hospital. One woman has so far been arrested and bailed and police are hunting two men thought to be in the van.

Officers have pursued the white transit van after being called to reports of two “rogue traders” demanding cash from a pensioner at a home in Deeds Grove, High Wycombe.

Mike Franklin, IPCC commissioner for the South East, said: “As a result of this collision, a man is currently very ill in hospital and it is right that the actions of the officers who were pursuing the white van are scrutinised.

“From the information we have gathered over the last week, the police appear to have been legitimately attempting to apprehend those in the van who are believed to have been trying to con a pensioner.”

He said: “We are seeking to establish what risk assessment, if any, was undertaken before the pursuit began and look at whether or not officers should have considered other options.”

The watchdog will be looking at Thames Valley Police and Association of Chief Police Officers “to check that they have been followed in this case” he said.

Click the links at the bottom of this story to read more stories on this incident.

Police were called to Deeds Grove at about 3pm on November 4.

The IPCC said two officers in a marked car saw the van drive away as they arrived They pursued it for about a minute and 35 seconds before the collision, it said. Officers stopped to help the man and the van drove away.

The van, registration RY54 USN, was later found dumped in the Bellfield Road Industrial Estate in High Wycombe.

Police referred the matter to the IPCC that day.

An IPCC statement said: “Since then IPCC investigators have examined independent witness accounts, police logs and the initial accounts of the officers involved.

“They have also listened to the radio traffic between the police officers and the control room, and attended various briefings.”

It said the probe into police conduct was being conducted by Thames Valley Police’s professional standards department but “managed” by the IPCC.

The IPCC has the choice of passing investigations wholly to forces, supervising force investigations, managing them, as is the case here, or fully taking over.

Officers this week renewed their appeal for information.

Anyone with information can call DCI Kidman on 0845 8 505 505 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.