IOPC review ‘painfully overdue’

9 January 2020

A REVIEW of the Independent Office for Police Conduct is “painfully overdue”, according to Essex Police Federation.

The IOPC has come under criticism for taking years to resolve investigations against officers, during which time their personal and professional lives can come under intense strain.

The process can also be traumatising, having a catastrophic effect on officers.

Steve Taylor, Chairman of Essex Police Federation, said: “The lack of oversight that that particular body receives is shocking.

“The commodity they trade in is confidence in the police, and when that is knocked, as it is time and time and time again by woefully inadequate investigations over woefully existing timescales, the people that suffer are the people in our community, the people in Essex, because it’s their police force that is knocked.

“Very few people even know who the IOPC are, and I’m not suggesting they should be in it for publicity’s sake, but it needs to be acknowledged that the commodity they deal in is confidence in the police, and that’s the lifeblood of our policing units.

“Without the consent of the people, our policing model doesn’t work. That’s how important this matter is.

“The oversight that that particular body needs to have, it’s important that they have it at the right level, and that the Home Secretary can hold the IOPC to account so that correspondently the Home Secretary can then be held to account for continued disappointing performance by that department.”

The PFEW has launched a Time Limits campaign, aiming to reduce the maximum time for an IOPC investigation to 12 months.