IOPC Needs To Be Reformed

There needs to be a reform of the IOPC because “it is acting irresponsibly with public money and it’s acting irresponsibly with the livelihoods of our officers”, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

Last month, a Metropolitan Police officer was cleared of dangerous driving after crashing on the way to a terror attack. The investigation lasted nearly four years, with Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley saying: “The treatment of this brave officer by the systems of accountability is appalling.”

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said: “I welcome the comments of the Commissioner and my Federation colleagues from the Met. It’s an absolutely outrageous example of wasting public money, and for what? I think 99.9% of the public would be outraged that police officers are having to face court cases for doing their job honestly and to the best of their ability. It’s not acceptable.

“The IOPC needs to have regulatory oversight, because it is acting irresponsibly with public money and it’s acting irresponsibly with the livelihoods of our officers. There needs to be reform.”

Steve continued: “If the police, hypothetically, took a case out against a member of the public, and that case collapsed in court, the police are then subject to scrutiny by the IOPC and others in terms of the way we conduct ourselves. But where is the oversight for the IOPC? They can do what they want, when they want.

“There has to be a system in place to ensure that the police do things properly, but it needs to be properly regulated, because I’m sure members of the public will be wondering how they can justify the hundreds of thousands of pounds it costs to prosecute somebody for something which is completely perverse.”

Steve added that it was good to see Sir Mark Rowley coming in strong on this issue, and he encouraged other chief officers to speak out.

He said: “Locally, we do sometimes have the backing of our senior officers when the IOPC has acted in a way that we don’t agree with. But there’s got to be more collective action by the NPCC, by chief officers, to actually call them out. Because we’re not afraid to call them out, we’ll continue to do so. But it’s not acceptable that the IOPC is allowed to carry on in this way. It’s hypocritical.”