Yorkshire police officer to undergo 'reflective process' after 'lesbian nana' arrest

An officer from West Yorkshire Police has been told that they must take time to reflect on their role in the arrest of the 16-year-old girl in Leeds in August 2023, which led to an investigation from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

A clip of the arrest went viral following a complaint from the mother of the girl, who said her teenage daughter was arrested for saying a female officer “looked like her lesbian nana”.

A video uploaded to TikTok by her mother showed the girl, 16, being detained by seven officers outside her home in Leeds in the early hours of Monday, August 7.

The IOPC has now completed its investigation and found the officer did not have a case to answer for misconduct or gross misconduct, but that they should undertake a “reflective practice – to reflect and learn from the incident to prevent any issues identified from re-occurring, as their actions fell short of the expectations of the public and the police service as set out in the Code of Ethics”.

A statement from the IOPC said the investigation was launched to determine whether the officers actions were ppropriate and proportionate in line with approved police policies and training.

It said: “We established that officers were called to Leeds city centre to a disturbance involving the girl and officers made the decision to take her back home, rather than make an arrest. Once back at the home address, the evidence suggested a potentially homophobic comment was made by the girl, which the officer believed was directed towards her.

"The evidence identified that the comment made was not as was reported on the short clip which appeared on social media. As a result, the officer took the decision to arrest the girl in relation to this offence. We concluded that WYP officers at the address on the whole did attempt to de-escalate the situation and the level of force used appeared to have been appropriate in the circumstances.

“However, we did find that some of the language used by one of the officers towards the girl was inappropriate and was not conducive to de-escalating the situation.”

IOPC Regional Director Emily Barry said: “We understand the video that was circulated at the time attracted considerable public concern and that is why it was important that the circumstances of this incident were subject to an independent investigation so we could fully understand what happened and impartially determine the facts.

“Our investigation looked at the whole picture of the incident and we decided the officer should now work with their supervisor to reflect, learn and improve from what occurred, to prevent this from happening again.

“We also felt that a letter of apology should be sent to the girl and the family in attempt to remedy any dissatisfaction. The force agreed with this suggestion and have written to the family.”