20 July 2021

Scattergun approach to IOPC investigations into officers causes significant collateral damage

A scattergun approach by the Independent Office for Police Conduct into its probes into police officers causes significant collateral damage to colleagues who have done no wrong.

James Dimmack, Dorset Police Federation Chair, said that while police officers have no issue with being held to account for their actions, he called on the IOPC to specifically target alleged misconduct – rather than throwing enough mud at colleagues until something sticks.

James said: “I am fully in favour of the IOPC as the police service needs to be held to account but I do believe this should be completed in a targeted fashion.

“It seems to me that all too often the IOPC are fishing for results when their work should be more targeted and precise. All too often the IOPC seem to defer to the machine gun approach. Using this they eventually hit the target however the collateral damage caused along the way is significant and lasting.

“In order to significantly impact on timeliness of their investigations – which is a major issue - I believe the IOPC need to effectively scrutinise and case manage each investigation. This will require strong decision making and clear case direction.”

Speaking at the Police Federation of England and Wales Conference in June Independent Office for Police Conduct Director-General Michael Lockwood admitted the organisation must do better on the time it takes to complete investigations.

“We don’t want a police officer under a cloud longer than they need to,” he told the first ever Virtual Annual Conference.

James added: “It is refreshing to hear admissions that the IOPC must do better. This is however not new. For seemingly years now we have been hearing how well the IOPC have done to reduce wating times to under a year.

“To be fair that was an improvement however it is still simply completely unacceptable.

“Investigations are seemingly completely exhaustive irrespective of the complexity and merits of each case. There seems to be a complete lack of perspective or reflection on what cases are investigated and indeed to what extent that investigation is required.”