Police Accountability

To ensure probity and public confidence, the police service must be seen to be fully accountable for its actions. For many years the Police Federation of England and Wales has called upon the government to introduce an independent system for investigating all complaints made against police officers by members of the public. The new body which replaces the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) is the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) which came into effect in 2004.

 

Alan Gordon, Vice Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales:

“We welcome measures to standardise CSOs powers. However we remain unconvinced of the need for CSOs to have the ability to use force while detaining people.

"We also believe chief officers should not retain the discretion to alter those powers to suit their needs as this merely adds to the confusion. Standardised powers should be just that – standardised.

 

The Police Federation of England and Wales thoughts:

• Over the past few years police forces have set up professional standards departments to investigate internal matters. The primary function of these departments is to identify and deal with corruption. We fully support these developments: there is no room in the police service for corrupt officers.

 

• Notwithstanding the essentiality of accountability, it is important that investigations into police officers’ conduct by the IPCC or by the forces do not have an adverse effect upon policing or police officers.

 

• The Police Federation is especially concerned about the length of time investigations take, for instance incidents when armed officers have discharged their weapons

 

• We are concerned that at present many officers are prevented from returning to work until they are exonerated; their career in a state of flux. This is not the correct way to treat officers.

 

• We call for all cases to be investigated quickly to minimise the impact upon career progression, retention and recruitment and the wellbeing of officers.

 

• Police officers must have confidence in the system. Confidence, however, will only stem from a system that is equitable, thorough and swift.

 

• Our calls for the creation of a wholly independent system have only partly been met. Whilst the IPCC enables some cases to be investigated independently, it will not lead to a totally independent system. It is proposed that the IPCC will investigate a mere 1,000 cases, in addition to managing a further 1,000. This represents approximately an average of 3 per cent of the annually recorded complaints.

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