Police watchdog probe footage showing policeman appearing to throw punch at teenager

The police watchdog is investigating footage which purports to show a policeman throwing a punch at a teenager during a stop-and-search.  

The pair appeared to be involved in a scuffle, captured in footage taken by onlookers in Tottenham, north London, on Tuesday afternoon.

At one point during the 20-second clip – which has been widely-shared online – the officer can be seen swinging his arm towards the boy but it does not connect and they both end up on the floor.

Three officers suffered injuries during the stop-and-search and four 16-year-old boys were arrested.

Onlookers can be heard screaming ‘please’ and ‘record this’ as the scuffle ensued. 

The Metropolitan Police said officers stopped a group of males in West Green Road at around 4.50pm on Tuesday, detaining one of them for a search.

‘A crowd formed and officers made a circle around the male,’ the force said in a statement.

‘During the incident three officers suffered injuries.’

The Met said the four arrested teenagers have been bailed to a date in January.

Detective Chief Superintendent Treena Fleming, said: ‘I am aware of videos circulating on social media showing part of the incident and we are working to establish the full circumstances of what occurred.

‘A criminal investigation is under way to ascertain how the officers received their injuries and welfare support is being provided to them.

‘A public complaint has been received and we recognise the community concern around this incident so we have made a voluntary referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

‘The IOPC has taken the investigation as independent.

‘It is important to remember that videos show a snapshot in time and the wider context is not immediately obvious.

‘I would ask that our communities allow us the time for the incident to be reviewed in full so that all the circumstances can be established.’ 

The footage comes in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, which saw critics slam the Met as ‘institutionally racist’ for perceived instances of racial profiling and heavy-handed tactics. 

Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick was forced admit her force is ‘not free of discrimination, racism or bias’ – despite earlier insisting that the Met is not institutionally racist.

In November, London Mayor Sadiq Khan ordered Met Police to justify stop and searches on black suspects and double their target for new BAME recruits from 19 per cent to 40 per cent within two years.

Mr Khan has ordered the 40 per cent recruitment target by 2022 because 40 per cent of the London population is from the Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic (BAME) community.

He has also convinced Dick that officers will have to review stop and search and justify incidents to community panels. 

But their joint race action plan does not make clear if the panels will have any powers to punish officers they believe have behaved inappropriately. 

The London mayor’s office data shows that black people are three and a half times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people. 

But Dick has claimed that stop and search tactics are saving the lives of young black men in London.

The commissioner said black boys are nine times more likely to be murdered than their white counterparts.