No Need To Change Police Discipline Process

20 October 2022

The fact that so many investigations into police officers end with no case to answer illustrates that the current system is working, according to Kent Police Federation.

Chair Neil Mennie was responding to an announcement by the Home Office that it intends to launch a “targeted review of police dismissals to raise standards and confidence in policing across England and Wales”.

While the Home Office says the review is intended to ensure the system is more effective in removing officers who are not fit to serve the public, Neil said the current process already allows forces to remove officers quickly where the evidence is strong enough.

He said: “Any review of this process has to steer away from the idea that public reassurance in the misconduct arena means sack more police officers.

“No one wants to retain serious wrongdoers and fortunately this comprises of a small minority who quite rightly have no place in policing.

“However, this needs to be balanced against the large number of hearings that result in no further action or a lesser finding of misconduct only that should never have arrived at a full powers hearing.

“The regulations were designed to deal with matters at ‘the lowest most appropriate level’ and this is an important principle. The current panels are by design chaired by a legally qualified individual who brings independence to the table in a way that had not previously existed.

“Many hearings result in no further action and lesser findings of misconduct only – and this indicates that the process is working as balanced against the original assessment of gross misconduct. It could be argued that this is indictive of over assessment in the first place.

“While sometimes the outcomes can generate a headache for forces, quite simply not liking the finding of a panel is vastly different to having an ability to sack them because you don’t like the answer.”

Neil added that it would be more useful for the Home Office to investigate the effect of long, drawn out investigations on officers who are ultimately cleared of charges.

He explained: “It would be far more valuable to examine the impact on those members facing long drawn out proceedings, who become disenfranchised and angry before ‘starting back at work on Monday’. And quite understandably so.

“Mechanisms already exist to exit individuals rapidly from policing where the evidence is strong enough.

“Rather than pay lip service to ‘the vast majority of officers who are getting things right’( as is often said) let’s look after them properly and afford them the fair treatment they deserve.”

The Home Office said the 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.