DC Michael Swindells, QGM was a British police officer who was stabbed to death on 21 May 2004 in Birmingham whilst attempting to arrest a suspect who had earlier threatened members of the public with a knife.

[1] Swindells was stabbed once in the chest, penetrating his heart, while pursuing a suspect, known to be armed with a kitchen knife, on a towpath of the Tame Valley Canal underneath Gravelly Hill Interchange in Aston, Birmingham.

The officer's colleagues administered first aid after the stabbing but were unable to save him; the suspect was arrested later in Witton Cemetery, three miles (4.8 km) away, by armed police.

[3] Glaister Earl Butler, a 48-year-old with paranoid schizophrenia who resided in a council-owned maisonette in Nechells, Birmingham, was convicted of Swindells's manslaughter.

Before the attack on Swindells the mental health services were called by police enquiring about Butler's condition and how dangerous he should be considered if officers encounter him, but staff were unable to give full and accurate details due to the poor state of the records.