PFEW meeting with the IOPC is a positive step toward much needed change

POLICE watchdog the IOPC should be independently reviewed and assessed to check on its performance says South Yorkshire Police Federation.

It says the much-criticised office has issues to resolve, but the fact that IOPC leaders are now meeting with the PFEW to talk them through is a positive start.

One way of pushing improvements at the organisation would be for it to have an independent body monitoring its performance Steve Kent, South Yorkshire Police Federation Chairman, said.

“We can’t criticise the IOPC on the one hand and then not welcome them wanting to sit around the table and address those criticisms on the other,” Steve said.

“We absolutely have to embrace this, and they want to change some of the issues that we’ve raised with them, which is to be welcomed.

“The proof will be in the pudding down the line. Words are all very well and good, but we have to see the results of this. But, at this stage, it’s a good thing to get people around a table to discuss the issues.

“There needs to probably be even more feedback from the locals or more interaction with the local forces perhaps,” Steve said.

“We do try and meet our IOPC oppos on occasions but maybe something a bit more formalised where we have a call to the meeting or something like that, just to sort of go through the issues.

“There needs to be some level of accountability for the IOPC,” Steve added.

“What I’d like to see off the back of this is the transparency for them to have their own review process above them to manage their performance in the same way that we are, and then I think they could obviously self-reflect and also have an independent viewpoint watching them. So there needs to be an I-IOPC.”

As the meeting in July, the PFEW argued that IOPC investigators need better knowledge about Post Incident Procedures. It said at times there was a “lack of empowerment” with IOPC investigators slow in making decisions on whether an officer is a witness, a suspect or if the case will be referred to the force or IOPC.

Better disclosure training was also high up on the list with Fed reps flagging they often struggle to obtain specific materials which will be used in the officer’s defence.

The length of time it takes for the IOPC to decide whether officers involved in cases are witnesses or suspects is a major bugbear, and it can have a devastating effect on officers and their families.

The PFEW wants all cases to be resolved within a set time limit too, but Steve knows this and the witness/suspect timeframe may be challenging for the IOPC to deliver.

“Timescales are one of the most significant issues we’ve got. I’m sceptical about how achievable it is. I do not want to give them too much of an excuse, but with its resources, I don’t necessarily think that’s going to be feasible,” he said.

“But that’s what we want. We want there to be strict timescales unless cases are specifically complex, at which point they do a full judicial review to give them an extension in the same way we have to do with the Bail Act for example.”