This week saw the publication of the Independent Office for Police Conduct Annual Report.
Fear not, I’m not going to subject you to a precis of all 152 pages, just some of them.
I made it all the way to Page 6 before I took exception to anything substantial.
Our mission, vision and values
Our mission is to improve policing by independent oversight of police complaints, holding police to account and ensuring learning effects change.
Our vision is that everyone is able to have trust and confidence in the police.
I’m not sure that is truly independent to prosecute officers when there is a lower than normal likelihood of a conviction. It smacks very much of “giving it a run”, a practice (allegedly) that died out with the arrival of PACE. I’m not sure that it’s truly independent, when the Independent Office for Police Conduct fails to comply with the obligatory principles around Disclosure. They have been criticised at Court more than once for that.
Page 7
Our values, developed in consultation with our staff and external stakeholders, are:
• seeking truth
• being inclusive
• empowering people
• being tenacious
• making a difference
I don’t really have an issue with those values, but they could have included
- Being scrupulously fair to all parties
- Being truly independent
- Conducting our investigations in a timely fashion, without any undue delay.
Page 11
Objective: the complaints system delivers evidence-based, fair outcomes which hold police to account.
Complete 85% of investigations within 12 months (excluding major investigations)
They achieved 89%
Complete 33% of investigations within 6 months (excluding major investigations)
They achieved 38%.
Using the ‘Search’ function in the document, I can find NO REFERENCE whatsoever to the multiple investigations that have taken 5, 6, 7 years, or more, to complete. I can think of no justification at all for taking that sort of time to complete any investigation when the identities of all parties are known to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
If a Police Officer/Squad/Team had taken so long the IOPC would take an exceedingly dim view of it, quite reasonably. It is unforgiveable that, as has occurred occasionally, an IOPC investigation drags on for years and ultimately the officer is not guilty of any disciplinary matters or found Not Guilty at Court.
They really don’t like it when an officer is acquitted at Court, they scurry around, scoop up thr whole bowl of cherries, and proceed to discipline.
Finally, I was particularly unimpressed by the insertion of the word ‘independent’ before just about every occasion that an investigation was referenced.
At that point you will glad to know that I gave up. You can check the next 140 pages yourself if you want to.
I suppose we really need to know how many complaints/ investigations they dealt with in total to work out what 11% of that number is. That will probably cover the multi year drawn out cases they can’t just let go of.
Like you I despise corrupt officers and those who abuse their position but it would seem that the IOPC might actually come into that category by the some of the tricks and excuses they use whilst investigating the Police.
Don’t bother telling me what the 11% number is as it will only wind me up even more.
Thanks for what you do in highlighting these things.
Thanks Chris, I think all their statistics are included in the full report, but I’d lost the will to live then.