A man on a family day out jumped from his car and ran to help a police officer restrain a suspect in the street in Torquay, Devon, police dashcam footage shows.
The footage, published by news outlets on 9 September 2025, shows the man, later named in reports as Chris Topps, leaving his vehicle and running to the scene where an officer appeared to be wrestling with an individual on a public road. The bystander can be seen assisting the officer in pinning the person to the ground until additional officers arrived.
According to the video and accompanying reports, the incident unfolded while Topps was out with family. The dashcam clip captures the moments before and during the intervention; it does not include detailed information about the events that led to the officer's interaction with the suspect, nor does it show what charges, if any, were later brought.
Publicly available accounts did not include an immediate statement from Devon and Cornwall Police about the bystander’s actions or the outcome for the person who was restrained. It was also not reported whether the officer involved was injured.
News organisations that published the footage described the intervention as a dramatic and spontaneous act by a member of the public. Community assistance in policing situations has been widely reported in the past, but police forces typically advise members of the public to exercise caution and to follow officer instructions rather than intervening directly, citing concerns for personal safety and the potential to complicate police procedures.
The dashcam clip circulated on social media and was carried by national outlets on 9 September 2025. There has been no independently verified public record released by police authorities in connection with Topps’s involvement as of the time of publication.
Further details, including any official police statement, charges, or witnesses’ accounts, have not been published. Media organisations covering the footage said the video shows only a portion of the incident and urged viewers to await formal accounts from authorities for a complete picture.