‘Crippling Effect’ Of Long IOPC Investigations
DRAWN-out IOPC investigations into officers’ conduct is having ‘crippling effects’ on their mental health, South Yorkshire Police Federation has warned.
The PFEW has submitted evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee in a bid to highlight the detrimental impact of lengthy disciplinary investigations on members and their families.
It has placed ‘hard-hitting’ case studies showing how investigations can ruin the lives of police officers in front of MPs as part of a formal enquiry into the IOPC, which is due to investigate the watchdog over the next few months.
It all backs up what South Yorkshire Police Federation Chairman Steve Kent says he has seen first hand.
Steve said: “Lengthy investigations have a crippling effect on officers’ mental wellbeing and their wellbeing in general – including their family life.
“I’ve seen first-hand in some of our officer investigations that go on for years just how extremely damaging it is to people. It’s just not acceptable.
“It just puts their lives on hold. I can speak as somebody who wasn’t under investigation from the IOPC, but I was under a lengthy investigation myself, and for that period of your life everything’s on hold.
“It just has a massive effect on everything in terms of your health and your relationships with your family and your children. Times that by three or four years and the worry is a massive burden or them to take.”
Steve hopes the review into the complaints system will ultimately lead to the IOPC being independently regulated. He added that South Yorkshire Police Federation is fully behind the PFEW’s bid to get time limits for investigations imposed.
He said: “It’s important the IOPC gets some kind of regulation, and we absolutely support the stricter timelines their investigations need to be held against.
“We wouldn’t get away with it for members of the public who are under suspicion so there’s no reason why the IOPC should.
“It’s encouraging that the pressure for them to do that is having an effect and that they’re starting to realise they’ve got to play ball.
“That has to be a positive development, and we just want it to be officially put into writing, so they’ve got nowhere to go with it.
“Unless something’s extremely complex then an expectation to resolve investigations within 12 months is there.”
The PFEW have called for more routine cases to be resolved within a set time frame as they can drag on for years with outcomes continuously delayed or caught up in red tape.