THE Independent Police Complaints Commission has upheld a complaint from an Asian store manager who said officers failed to deal with a complaint of racial abuse following an altercation with another man.
The incident took place in March 2006 when an Asian store manager was assaulted by a white customer at a Birmingham retail park.
The victim received treatment for minor injuries. He was subsequently unable to work as a result of the trauma for a prolonged period.
The IPCC said although officers were present at the scene they claimed not to have heard the racial abuse.
As a result the attacker was cautioned and released shortly after.
But the IPCC said the officers in question had not acted on the abuse and had not gathered evidence from four witnesses.
They said the incident had left the victim “deeply traumatised”.
John Crawley, IPCC Commissioner said: “I have upheld this complaint. The victim of this assault was deeply traumatised by this very unpleasant incident. His distress was then added to by the failure of the police to act appropriately by utilising substantial witness evidence of the racially aggravating feature of the assault and prosecute the offender accordingly.
“I am now overseeing a second phase of this investigation, which concerns the actions of another officer who had earlier been tasked with reviewing the conduct of the crime investigation, and I will comment further on the case when this significant part of our investigation is concluded.”
West Midlands Police have not commented on the matter.
