Trinity Road Police Officers Mistakenly Arrest Bristol Councillor Afzal Shah

Bungling police officers at Trinity Road Police Station, arrested Bristol councillor Afzal Shah, after he tried to report a crime at the station.

Instead of dealing with his report, Afzal Shah who sits on the Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Panel for Bristol City Council, was arrested after officers wrongly decided he looked like another man wanted in connection with a crime.

Cllr Shah said he was arrested and held for 45 minutes in the back of a police car. There are no cells at Trinity Road, a station that is soon due to be redeveloped.

Police have apologised to Cllr Shah, but it does raise questions as to how this mistaken identity could have happened and why it took so long for Trinity Road officers to identify a member of Bristol’s own Councillors, one that sits on a panel that looks at complaints against the Police and Crime Commissioner. Awkward.

Superintendent Andy Bennett said: “Officers acted in good faith in arresting Cllr Shah at Trinity Road Police Station after another man who was in the station reporting an offence visually identified him as one of the people involved. This identification was later found to be incorrect and Cllr Shah was released without having been taken to a custody unit.

“We are extremely grateful for Cllr Shah’s contribution to community policing both as a councillor and as a member of the Police and Crime Panel. We have apologised to him for the distress and embarrassment this incident has clearly caused him and welcome this opportunity to clarify this publicly.”

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