THAMES Valley Police says it has ‘identified areas of learning’ following an incident in which a police officer rammed a stray cow with a car.

The force carried out an internal review into the infamous incident, which was captured on camera on May 13, 2020.

The cow was unable to be contained after it had escaped from a field in Woodley.

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In a statement posted after the incident, police said several attempts were made to bring the cow under control when it escaped last month.

But officers were unable to do this and the animal moved to a residential area where it charged at a member of the public and caused damage to vehicles.

An officer then used a police vehicle to “stop” the cow and “prevent it from charging” at other members of the public.

The police said this decision was “not taken lightly” and other options including tranquilisation were ruled out.

Following the incident, Thames Valley Police referred itself the Independent Office of Police Conduct -- a police standards watchdog -- but the body said it would not investigate the matter in June.

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The matter was “sent back to the force”, so the Chronicle asked Thames Valley Police what the outcome of its own investigation was.

No comment was received until Thursday, July 22, when a spokesperson for the force said: “Thames Valley Police carried out an internal review into this incident.

“No areas of misconduct were identified, however the force did identify some areas of learning.

“We would like to reassure the public that we worked closely with the farmer who was on scene throughout the incident and precluded all other options including tranquilisation.

“Thankfully these instances are very rare and the measures carried out in this particular incident were necessary to protect the public from further harm.”

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An investigation by the Chronicle found that Thames Valley Police recorded ‘no formal complaints’ related to the incident in the fallout from the controversy.

A Freedom of Information request sent to the force revealed that “complaints had been made by members of the public in relation to this incident, however none of them were eligible to complain formally, therefore no formal complaints were recorded.”

According to a spokesperson from TVP’s Professional Standards team, “to make a complaint about the conduct of an individual a member of the public must claim to be the person in relation to whom the conduct took place, must claim to have been adversely affected by the conduct or must claim to have witnessed the conduct themselves.”

They continued: “Each complaint was assessed and it is believed that no one present during the incident made a complaint.”