Police have been told to prioritise “real crime” after a mum was arrested for confiscating her children’s iPads. Vanessa Brown was held for nearly eight hours in a police cell after being accused of stealing the two devices.
The history teacher says she took the iPads to encourage her kids to focus on their school work while popping to her mum’s for a coffee. Officers had tracked the devices to the home of the grandmother, in her 80s, after being alerted to a potential theft. They then hauled in the mum-of-two for questioning before searching her, as well as taking fingerprints and custody mug shots.
Officers also pulled one of her daughters out of a class at school. Ms Brown, 50, was finally returned to her mum’s house 12 hours after the initial arrest.
She was further devastated to learn that her bail conditions would mean not speaking to her children – with Mother’s Day in just a few days’ later. Surrey Police said a tracking device showed the iPads were at the address and she was detained after refusing to cooperate.
The incident is the latest in a string of controversial police responses after the parents of a nine-year-old girl were arrested having complained about their daughter’s primary school in a WhatsApp group.
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said the police need to get their priorities right.
“It is weird. I don’t understand why shoplifting is ignored by the police while a mother is held for eight hours for confiscating her children’s iPads,” the former Tory Cabinet minister said.
“The police must prioritise real crime and get a grip.”
Speaking to LBC about the incident, Ms Brown said: “I find it quite traumatic even talking about this now.
“They were able to send a police car with police officers to my children’s school, they were able to send another police car or two to arrest me.
“I know people are making reports of thefts, of assaults and very violent crimes in and around our neighbourhood, and they’re not getting a response for days.
“I cannot get to the bottom of why it was done in such a quick turnaround, maybe less than an hour – all these police cars and police officers going to an address over a completely false report of a theft.”
The force said a search operation for the devices had begun after a man in his 40s alerted them to their possible theft, having already been called out to a “concern for safety” on March 26.
Surrey Police are facing calls to apologise to Ms Brown, after it took more than 24 hours from the point of arrest to inform her no further action would be taken.
“At no point did they think to themselves, ‘Oh, this is a little bit of an overreaction’”, Ms Brown said.
“It was thoroughly unprofessional.
“They were speaking to my mother, who is in her 80s, like she was a criminal.”
Ms Brown’s treatment has been criticised by Tory MP Anthony Stansfeld, the former police and crime commissioner for Thames Valley, who called on the force to apologise.
“It seems to me incompetence and a certain amount of overzealousness at a junior level, which the local inspector should have put a rapid stop to,” he said.
“It was quite unnecessary to put a reputable 50-year-old history teacher into a cell for seven hours.
“It’s hardly likely that she would have absconded abroad and I would hope that the chief constable goes and apologises personally to the poor lady.”
Tory MP Neil O’Brien, said: “This is beyond absurd. People are having phones snatched all the time and police won’t follow up even when they know where they are, yet a law abiding person can end up in a cell for hours on end for taking away their own kids’ iPads.”
Chief Superintendent Aimee Ramm, Surrey Police’s Northern Divisional Commander said: “A tracking device on the iPads showed that they were at the address.
“Officers encouraged the woman to return the items and resolve the matter, however the woman did not cooperate and therefore she was arrested on suspicion of theft.
“A search was then carried out using post-arrest powers and the iPads were located.
“The woman was subsequently released on conditional bail while further enquiries were carried out to establish the ownership of the iPads.
“The police bail conditions included not speaking to anyone connected to the investigation, including her daughters, while officers carried out their enquiries.
“Following these enquiries, officers were able to verify that the iPads belonged to the woman’s children, and that she was entitled to confiscate these items from her own children.”
Ms Brown’s detention came a month after two parents from Hertfordshire revealed they suffered a similar ordeal, having complained about their daughter’s primary school in a WhatsApp group.
Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine were detained in front of their young daughter by six officers before being left in a cell for eight hours.
They were questioned on suspicion of harassment, malicious communications and causing a nuisance on school property, but Hertfordshire Constabulary eventually found there should be no further action after a five week investigation.
Mr Allen said it showed “massive overreach” from the force in what he described as a “completely Kafkaesque” scenario.
