Bill welcomed but more work needed to properly protect police drivers

9 March 2021

Today’s formal introduction to Parliament of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is a significant step towards giving police drivers the legal protections they need when doing their job, says West Midlands Police Federation deputy secretary Tim Rogers.

But Tim, who is also the national Federation’s driver training and response driving lead, says that more work still needs to be done to ensure the new legislation does not serve to further criminalise officers if they breach national driving policies.

“After more than six years of campaigning for a change in the law to ensure that officers’ specialist training and skills can be taken into account when their driving is assessed, I am pleased to see this bill unveiled in the House of Commons,” says Tim.

“It has been a long process to get to this point and I am grateful to everyone who has supported this campaign. The proposed changes to the law set out to ensure that officers are no longer assessed by the standards of the careful and competent driver which was clearly not right.

“But, as the bill progresses through the various stages of becoming law, we have to ensure that there is close scrutiny of the wording of the new legislation. The current wording will see officers’ driving assessed according to the standard of the careful and competent police driver and could serve to criminalise breaches of driving policy.

“So as this bill passes to the committee and report stages, we need to further engage with the Government to ensure all the finer details of the legislation are as they should be to make this truly fit for purpose.”

Tim adds that as the initial draft legislation stands it has the potential to see more officers being charged under the very changes being introduced to offer them better legal protection.

Tim explains: “It is impossible for every element of police driving to be covered by policy but any deviance of policy, perhaps simply because a certain tactic is not included in a driver training directory, could lead to a conclusion that a criminal offence has been committed. We need an exemption to cover these matters.

“Police officers simply should not be singled out for criminal prosecution for behaviour which, if it occurred in any other profession, would be a matter for regulation and a civil action.

“Under the current provisions of the bill, a police driver driving above the standard of the careful and competent member of the public but below that of an elite class of police driver would potentially render themselves liable to criminal prosecution.”

By way of example, Tim explains that a police officer who delivers a sub-standard commentary during a pursuit could fall foul of the new standard and risk being prosecuted for driving without due care and attention.

He also cites an incident involving a target vehicle being driven the wrong way down a dual carriageway, leading to a clear risk to the public and an expectation that the police would act.

However, there is no provision for this in the Approved Professional Practice or the TAC directory so this again could lead to an officer being charged with a criminal offence. There has to be an acceptance that officers are expected on occasion to react instinctively in order to protect the public.

Tim is now seeking to have this matter raised with policing minister Kit Malthouse.

“We need an exemption to the offence to be included on the legislation to reflect the fact that there will be occasions where an officer is expected to act outside of their licensed training,” says Tim, “This is something I raised almost three years ago as part of the public consultation on this legislation and also in our original submission on this issue in 2016.

“We have to be able to prevent situations to arise whereby police officers could be criminalised for acting to protect the public.”

He is suggesting wording that would set out reasons why officers could depart from the usual standard by which they would be judged including the departure being ‘reasonable’ and ‘proportionate’ in the circumstances.

Tim believes the effective use of the legislation will be backed up by the establishment of driving standards units within forces, a move already followed by West Midlands Police and the Kent, Essex and Lancashire forces.