'Act of violence': Former officers criticise Met over man 'stopped 25 times'

Tap above to watch video report by Ria Chatterjee

Two former officers have criticised the Met Police for a "lack of empathy" and "act of violence" after a man who claims he was stopped more than 25 times was pulled over again.

Ryan Colaco filmed the most recent incident in London as police stopped him for the way he was driving. Officers said they were also searching for stolen property and dealing with illegal number plates.

There was no stolen property and the number plates on Ryan's car were found to be legal.

Ryan said the way he had been treated "played on his mind" and left him wondering when he was going to be stopped again.

Analysing the footage a forensic psychologist who worked for the Met for over a decade described a "clear imbalance of power."

"From a psychological perspective there is a clear imbalance of power from the moment police begin to talk to you - from the moment of the stop there's a clear lack of empathy," said Professor Coral Dando.

"They [police] don't understand how you're experiencing and how you're feeling at that time. We use sarcasm to belittle people and to mock. These sort of sarcastic interactions are unnecessary, they don't need to be said and they add nothing to the interaction," she added.

Ryan was first stopped under the Road Traffic Act but retired Superintendent Leroy Logan said they questioned him on something completely different.

"There has been violence - lawful violence by applying the cuffs. That is an act of violence," said Mr Logan.

"They haven't given reasonable grounds for why they've gone into that other than they have said you've not been not as co-operative and they have suspicions. That shows a lack of trauma-informed policing. Trauma-informed officers are more effective to make sure even if they have to stop you they are not adding to your pain," he added.

Professor Dando said the officers may have changed their behaviour because they may have felt they were losing control of the situation - not physically but mentally.

"They were starting to make what we call post-hoc rationalisation trying to retro-fit behaviour and their perceptions of behaviour to justify their own decision making," she added.

In a statement the Met Police told ITV News: