“Police officers are human: they will make human errors”

THE difference between doing ‘something badly or doing something bad’ should be part of new police misconduct measures, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) wants to shift emphasis to education over punishment in new misconduct recommendations sent to the Home Office.

South Yorkshire Federation Chair Zuleika Payne hopes more distinction will now be made between human error and more serious misconduct issues.

“At the outset of any potential misconduct case we must take into consideration whether an officer has done something bad or done something badly,” she says.

“Officers have to make on the spot decisions with the information that presents itself at the time and these sorts of decisions are happening more often as forces are becoming more and more stretched.

“Sometimes it can be all too easy to criticise officers in hindsight.”

Warwickshire Chief Constable Martin Jelley is leading the review and has said the current system is too blame heavy, was confusing for the public and that cases often took too long to be resolved.

“That’s a very reasonable and comprehensive view,” says Zuleika.

“It’s really important that we make a clear distinction as to whether or not what happened was an unintended action, an unforeseeable lapse in concentration maybe, a genuine mistake, or whether it was something that was an intended action and would have serious consequences involving criminality, corruption or discrimination perhaps. Cases need to be addressed in a timely manner too.

“Hopefully, in due course, education will provide a preventative element to it, ideally resulting in fewer incidents of this nature.”

Any changes made to misconduct procedures are likely to be in place by early 2019.