Discipline lead says conduct process ‘must change’

8 January 2024

West Midlands Police Federation’s discipline lead says the conduct process is ‘profligate’ and needs to change for the benefit of officers and the public.

Dave Hadley said the current system ‘breaks good people’ as he called for changes to the case to answer tests and for the time it takes for allegations to be heard to be speeded up.

He said: “It is essential that forces should expeditiously pursue those who are unfit to wear the uniform. No sensible person would ever advocate that there shouldn’t be accountability for officers, but the processes of accountability shouldn’t be a punishment in themselves.”

Dave said that one obstacle to dealing with misconduct matters expeditiously lies with the case to answer test.

“The test that is applied when prosecutors are considering instigating criminal prosecutions is much more stringent than those applied to police misconduct hearings,” he said.

“Criminal prosecutions only occur where there are reasonable prospects of success, I’d like to see something similar for misconduct cases.

West Midlands Police Federation’s discipline lead, Dave Hadley.

“In criminal cases, the Crown Prosecution Service considers two things. Firstly, whether there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction and, secondly, if it is in the public interest to bring the prosecution.

“With misconduct matters, that’s not the case.

“There is no assessment as to whether a potential misconduct matter has reasonable prospects of success, instead, the assessment is confined to whether there is any evidence available on which a panel could find misconduct.

“It’s an incredibly low threshold.

“To illustrate the point, you could have five statements saying an officer acted appropriately, one statement says they didn’t, and that’s it. That one statement is enough for the case to go to a hearing because there’s something which a panel could hang their hat on to make a finding.

“It’s an entirely profligate way of approaching such an important decision. Profligate in terms of the public money that is spent, and profligate in terms of time; professional standards investigators’ time, which should be focussing on the cases that need to be progressed for the good of policing in general.

“In my view, the assessment should involve an assessment of the case in the round. Is there sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of a finding against the officer, or not and is it reasonable and proportionate to bring the case to a hearing?

“That would enable forces to put their best efforts into the cases which involve those officers who need to be rooted out of policing rather than clogging up the system with cases which will almost certainly end in an outcome of ‘not proven’, leaving everyone with a bitter taste in the mouth.”

Dave said that the timescales involved in the misconduct process ‘can be scandalous’.

There is currently no cap on how long an allegation or complaint against a police officer can be investigated. A significant number of misconduct cases take years to come to a conclusion, which is why the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) is campaigning for police disciplinary investigations to be concluded within 12 months from the moment an allegation is made.

“Accountability shouldn't take years,” Dave said. “I see first-hand how newly vindicated officers react when they leave those hearings.

“The initial relief often gives way to anger which starts the minute they begin to reflect on how long they’ve had to wait, side-lined from active duties, promotions put on hold, roles that they have been working towards given to others because the posting can't be left unfilled indefinitely, and sometimes parlous personal finances from a lack of overtime and unsocial hours payments which some officer rely on to keep their heads above water after a decade of pay degradation.

“I hear the calls to the husbands, wives and families at home who have lived through those months and years of stress.

“These processes break good people who are caught up in this flawed system, people who only want to serve their communities. There is no public interest in inflicting such torment and stress on those people.”

Dave suggested that ‘the toxic effect of such treatment leads to a ripple effect of passive policing’.

“You can see how in some circumstances - when officers see a colleague unfairly subjected to a lengthy investigation and restricted duties - that they might think that by being proactive you’re putting your job at unnecessary risk,” he added.

“Many will think if they keep their head down, they still get the same wages at the end of the month, and it won’t be their family left wondering whether they’re going to be able to pay the mortgage.

“If officers haven’t the confidence to do their jobs, and passive policing becomes widespread, we’d be in a terrible position as a society.”