A police officer who became embroiled in a row after a YouTuber was told to "f*** off" outside High Wycombe police station is "no longer with the force", it has been confirmed.
A video – which was posted back in November 2020 by YouTuber koleeberks and has now been watched more than 217,000 times - allegedly shows two PCs inside a police car asking the male recording who he works for and if he has any identification.
Koleeberks, who describes himself as a citizen journalist, explains he is carrying out an “audit” – a movement made popular in America which involves photographing or filming a public space in a bid to promote “transparency”.
One of the officers then appears to tell the social media user he cannot film, adding: “Unless you can give me some ID you need to f*** off”, before they both get out of the vehicle.
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The footage reportedly shows the officers then grab the man filming, sending his recording device flying to the ground, and say they are detaining him.
As they put him in handcuffs, they tell him to “relax” – but when the YouTuber says: “I won’t relax, what is this all about?”, an officer seems to respond by saying: “You f***ing will relax, trust me.”
One of the officers then appears to knee the man in the back in the struggle.
At around two minutes and 20 seconds into the 11 minute 50 second video, an officer is seen picking up the recording device from the floor and the rest of the video is blank – but the sound is still recording.
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Nearly a year and a half after the shocking video was posted, koleeberks is still embroiled in a legal battle over the incident, which caused outrage on social media, and he is suing the force.
Sharing an update on the situation on his YouTube channel last week, he claims Thames Valley Police have apologised to him for the way he was treated.
What appears to be a screenshot of a legal document associated with the case reads: "The defendant [Thames Valley Police] wishes to offer a sincere and frank apology to your client [koleeberks]."
It goes on to say that one of the officers involved "used unnecessarily aggressive and offensive language in order to gain compliance in circumstances where his compliance was not required, therefore bringing discredit to the police service and damaging public confidence".
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Thames Valley Police was approached by the Bucks Free Press to confirm if the details mentioned in the screenshot were legitimate, but they would not comment further while the civil claim is still ongoing.
They did, however, confirm that one of the officers in the video "no longer works for the force" - although it is not clear if he left of his own accord or not.
They said: "Following reports about concerns regarding an arrest outside Wycombe Police Station on 28th November 2020, Thames Valley Police promptly reviewed the incident.
"Because there is an ongoing civil claim by the complainant with regards to this matter, it would be inappropriate to go into any detail until this process is concluded.
"We can confirm that one of the officers no longer works for the force."
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