“Police misconduct changes being rushed through”

ALL police officer gross misconduct hearings would be held in public under new conduct regulations being proposed by the Government.

Other planned changes – which could come in as early as the end of this year – include removing lawyers from the conduct process and discipline proceedings to continue even if an officer resigns.

Steve Evans, conduct lead for the Police Federation, said: “This is being rushed through without a great deal of thought.”

The Police Federation of England and Wales annual conference heard this week that police conduct changes are being swiftly driven through by the Government over “integrity” concerns.

As well as public hearings – which would be chaired by Superintending ranks – there are also new Government plans for all forces to have a public register of all officers involved in conduct hearings.

Mr Evans said: “Public floggings stopped 200 years ago. The overwhelming majority of police officers are decent, fair and honest – above all – people. So integrity for us is not an issue. A few cops do bad things some times. And they have to be rooted out.

“When we have brought regulations in the past, we have considered all the implications, where might this take us, what are the problems. This is being rushed through without a great deal of thought.

“We do have quite serious concerns because it appears the Home Office are streamlining the discipline process in such a way that it is just so much easier to dismiss officers.”

Mr Evans (pictured) told the conference that consultation with the Police Federation is currently underway and that the new Regulations – if they are pushed through – could become law by the end of this year, or the beginning of 2014.

He added: “There is an integrity agenda. What I would say is what is the problem you are trying to fix? If a cop is bad, they will get dismissed and we have no problem with that in the Federation – as long as they are treated fairly in the process.”

Mr Evans added: “The Federation regards looking after officers in conduct as one of its primary functions. We will look after officers, we will make sure the training that the reps get improves. It is already very good, it will get even higher.

“We will make sure they get access to legal advice and we will make sure they get the best defence possible. We have always done that and will continue to do that.”