Home Office introduces new police misconduct regulation

POLICE officers will no longer be able to resign or retire if they are subject to a misconduct allegation that might lead to dismissal.

The new Home Office regulations mean officers will have to wait until any case is concluded or until it has been decided that they will not face a dismissal hearing. Home Secretary Theresa May said the regulations reform is to ensure that police officers are “held to account for their actions”.

She added that new laws, which came into force on 12 January, would ensure that justice is provided for victims of police misconduct and that the police “learn the full lessons of each incidence of serious misconduct”.

According to the Home Office, 144 officers resigned or retired while subject to a gross misconduct investigation in the eight months between 1 December 2013 and 1 August 2014.

Mrs May said that “direct damage” had been done to public confidence by such cases in which officers “escaped justice by resigning or retiring where they might have been dismissed”.

An officer will only be allowed to retire or resign by a chief officer or police and crime commissioner if they are deemed medically unfit or in other exceptional circumstances, such as when a covert criminal investigation risks being prejudiced.

“The public rightly expects police officers to act with the highest standards of integrity and for those suspected of misconduct to be subject to formal disciplinary proceedings,” said Mrs May.

“The ability of officers to avoid potential dismissal by resigning or retiring is an unacceptable situation. That is why I have introduced these reforms to ensure victims and their families are not denied the truth of police misconduct.”