15 November 2023

Home Office Reviews Investigations Into Firearms Officers And Police Drivers

Policing needs to move away from a “sanctions and blame culture”, Dorset Police Federation has said, as the Home Office conducts a review into police investigations.

The Government will look at the investigations that follow police use of force and driving incidents, and assess if the existing legal and regulatory framework provides “sufficient protections for those in the line of duty and maintain public confidence in policing”.

Dorset Police Federation Chair James Dimmack said that although he was often sceptical about Home Office reports, this review was a positive step, adding that: “Things need to change.”

James said: “Of course the police need to be held to account for our actions. I never shy away from that. We have to do a lot of things that are difficult and challenging, and that are extremely impactive on people, so we have to be held to account for that.

“But what we also have to remember is that we are human beings. We have lives, we have families, and we can make genuine mistakes. We need to be protected so we can do our job. I know of officers who are choosing not to use force, choosing to be assaulted, for fear of the repercussions they may face through misconduct proceedings, which cannot be right.

“We’re asking officers to go out there and put themselves in danger to protect us, and yet they don’t feel confident enough to protect themselves. We have a brilliant police service and we need to protect it, and we need to look really hard at how we do that going forward, because doing what we’ve always done is not necessarily the right way.”

Police officers are drawn from society, James pointed out, so policing issues are also societal issues.

He continued: “Society’s changing, so the police will be changing, and the way we’re held to account is always changing. We need to be held to account but it needs to be proportionate, it needs to be fair, and we need to understand that police officers don’t come from another planet. We need to get away from a blame culture and move towards a learning culture again. We’ve been talking about a learning culture for a while, but now we are back into a sanctions and blame culture.”