IOPC investigators need the 'right experience'

29 May 2018

The Independent Office of Police Conduct must get the right investigators with the right experience if it is to do its job properly, Surrey Police Federation has said.

Mel Warnes, Federation Chair, was speaking after the issue was raised at the Police Federation of England and Wales Annual Conference this week.

Michael Lockwood, Director General of the new IOPC, addressed the meeting on Wednesday and responded to criticisms that investigations are too bureaucratic, timely and they lack transparency.

Mel added afterwards: “We need the right investigators, with the right experience, because they are investigating really serious allegations so they need to know their bread and butter type allegations, and to actually look at the evidence - if the evidence is there. More often than not, it isn’t.

"It was pulled up yesterday about false promises to families of victims. We don’t want that for anybody.”

Mel said she would wait for the IOPC to become settled into being and that she hoped that actions would speak louder than words.

Mel also welcomed the news announced at Conference that the service would benefit from an extra £460 million, but said more needed to be done to address demand.

She added: “What is happening in Surrey, and is being replicated across the country, is that we are stepping in for the ambulance services.

"We are waiting hours and hours for ambulances to turn up, and more often than not we are taking injured people or people going through a mental health crisis in our own police vehicles to hospital.

“When something happens in the police vehicle to those people, whether they become more ill or the worst happens, then it’s the police that are accountable. But actually we’re doing what we think is the best for that person, at that time.

“We’re not trained for this. We have very basic first aid and we don’t have the equipment that ambulances carry. So other services need to be made accountable for themselves.”