NEWS
IOPC figures show most police ofcers are being cleared of doing anything wrong
A report which revealed only 18 police officers faced misconduct meetings or hearings in one year after more than 100,000 allegations were made against police officers has been cautiously welcomed by the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) as proof new disciplinary processes seem to be working. PFEW Conduct and Performance Lead
Phill Matthews described the 2020/21 Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) report, which is the first to be published after new regulations within the Policing and Crime Act came into force in February 2020, as “reassuring that, despite the public increasingly using the complaints system, satisfaction levels have massively improved. This shows a relatively minor number of misconduct hearings are being needed”. The figures revealed 41 per cent
of cases were handled informally with an explanation being given to the complainant, while 31 per cent of cases
resulted in no further action. Learning and reflective activity were
the outcomes of only 14 per cent of the cases handled informally, which is a figure PFEW would like to see increasing in the coming years. Mr Matthews said: “We cannot take too much out of these figures given they are incomplete, and this is the first year of the IOPC recording statistics about the new regs.
“However, the low number of misconduct cases out of tens of thousands of complaint cases shows a huge majority of police officers act properly and professionally. “It’s right there is scrutiny and that
comes with the job. But what’s also encouraging is that 67,732 individuals had enough confidence in the new complaints system and people are happy to use this.” The stats also detailed that the amount
of time taken to resolve complaints dropped, but PFEW wants the IOPC to make further progress and to reduce this further.
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banner.indd 1 0300 303 1134 03/11/2021 10:27:15 33 I POLICE I DECEMBER 2021 Mr Matthews continued: “For
many years, our Time Limits campaign has pushed for a limit to the length of time members are placed under IOPC investigation. While we are clearly making some progress, these figures show most police officers are being cleared of doing anything wrong, but still face many months of worry and uncertainty whilst being investigated. “We also want to see more of those
who make genuine mistakes – as we all do - referred to a reflective practice review process. “Finally, we want the IOPC to spend most of its time rightly investigating the tiny number of police officers who deliberately step out of line, rather than the thousands of colleagues who have professionally done their job or made minor errors.”
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