‘Review of police dismissals must look at prolonged investigations’

24 November 2022

A Home Office review of police dismissals must address the unfairness of lengthy misconduct cases against officers, says Hertfordshire Police Federation chair Luke Mitchell.

Luke was responding to the news that the Home Office will carry out an internal review to ‘raise standards and confidence’ in policing across England and Wales and was speaking ahead of a two-day Police Federation seminar for conduct and performance liaison officers attended by branch treasurer Paul Coxall and full-time rep Dean Cornish.

Luke said: “Nobody is keener to see officers who do not uphold the standards of professional behaviour quite rightly expected of them weeded out of police forces than other officers themselves. The vast majority of people joined policing to uphold the law and protect the public and therefore they are the first to say that those who fall below our standards have no business wearing the uniform.

“In reality, the overwhelming majority of police officers are honest, brave and dedicated individuals who are going above and beyond to keep their communities safe. Of course, when you make decisions in the moment in what are high-pressured situations, mistakes are sometimes made, we are human after all. There are also those who will bring spurious complaints against police officers, that has always been the case.

“But what the Federation wants to see is basic fairness. Too many occasions complaint investigations drag on and on, which is bad for complainants and for the officers and their families. It often means a force is deprived of the services of an officer who is suspended or placed on restricted duties, at a cost to the public purse and the officer’s mental wellbeing.

“So, while we welcome the Home Office review, I would urge the focus to be on how to speed up the misconduct process. We need to ensure that where officers have done nothing wrong, the facts are quickly established and they are swiftly exonerated. In the same vein, where an officer has fallen short of the standards expected of them, they should be dealt with in a timely manner. Long-drawn-out investigations serve no one well.”

The Home Office review is likely to consider:

• The effectiveness of the existing system to dismiss those who fall seriously short of the standards expected by policing and the public
• The impact of the introduction of changes to misconduct panels, including legally qualified chairs
• Whether forces are making use of their powers to discharge officers during their probationary period.

Working with policing partners, it will also assess whether the regulatory framework for the police disciplinary system should be changed.

The Government introduced public misconduct hearings in 2015, legally qualified chairs to lead conduct panels in 2016 and the Police Barred List in 2017 to ensure that officers and staff who are dismissed cannot re-join the police.