Lancashire officer's 'make something up' threat condemned

A chief constable has described the behaviour of an officer who threatened to "make something up" in order to arrest a man as "unacceptable".

A clip of the incident, which happened in Accrington, Lancashire, on Friday, has been widely shared on social media.

Andy Rhodes, chief constable of Lancashire Constabulary, said the force had apologised to the man.

He said he recognised the potential impact the incident could have on public trust.

Mr Rhodes said police had been on their way to execute a search warrant at an address when they "stopped to speak to a group of males with a quad bike".

'Undoes hard work'

In the clip, a young man is shown telling the officer: "You're arresting me? What for? I've done nothing wrong."

The officer responds: "I'll lock you up.... We'll make something up… who are they going to believe, me or you?"

Mr Rhodes said: "The footage shows language and behaviour from one officer, which were completely unacceptable and for this I apologise without reservation."

He added: "We recognise the impact that this behaviour will have had, both on the young man concerned, and on the hard-earned trust and confidence of the wider public, particularly the comments about making offences up.

"It only takes one incident like this to undo the hard work of so many."

He said police had apologised to the man in the footage and would conduct a "thorough investigation" into the matter, which has been referred to the force's professional standards department.