An investigation by the Police Ombudsman’s Office has found that a police officer did not act insensitively when he put on a protective mask while searching the house of a person who was continually coughing.
The householder, who had emphysema and was reported to have been suffering from a chest infection, complained to the Police Ombudsman’s Office that the officer’s actions had been “offensive and insensitive”.
When interviewed, the officer admitted putting on a mask but said he had done so after asking the woman politely a number of times to stop coughing into his face.
The officer said he believed the woman was doing this deliberately to frustrate the search and annoy him. He said he put the mask over his face for his own protection only after the woman had ignored repeated requests to stop.
Other officers present during the search also believed the woman’s actions to have been deliberate, each providing consistent accounts of how the householder had behaved in an aggressive and unreasonable manner towards officers.
The investigation also rejected an allegation that there had been no grounds for the search, which took place in County Derry/Londonderry in March.
After examining police records, the Police Ombudsman investigator concluded that police did have sufficient grounds for the search.