A police decision to ram an escaped cow with a patrol car is being investigated as a criminal and internal misconduct matter.
Surrey police were heavily criticised after footage was posted online of a 10-month-old calf being rammed by a police car in the early hours of 15 June after reports of an animal on the loose in Staines-upon-Thames.
On Thursday, the force said that as part of its investigation it had made 290 house-to-house visits, handed out 210 leaflets along the route the calf took, contacted 75 witnesses and received more than 250 video clips.
The investigation is being led by the professional standards department and overseen by a senior investigating officer.
The deputy chief constable, Nev Kemp, said: “This significant update demonstrates why a thorough investigation is important, as it ensures all potential criminal and misconduct matters are clearly understood.
“This does, of course, take time.”
The calf’s owners, named only as Rob and Kate, said last month that allowing Surrey police to investigate themselves made it easier for the force to justify the action taken.
They added: “We still hold the thought that the handling of this situation was cruel and barbaric.”
Surrey police said officers tried a number of ways to capture the calf, named Beau Lucy, which had reportedly run at people and damaged a car, before the decision was taken to stop it by force using a patrol car.
The cow was returned to Rob’s farm, located near the border between Surrey and Middlesex, with bruises, and has since been recovering.
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