PFEW concerned about IOPC death involving an officer guidelines
THE Police Federation of England and Wales has expressed concern over new rules on deaths involving police officers.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct has issued proposed guidelines for incidents where a member of the public dies or is seriously injured following road traffic incidents, firearms operations, incidents in custody or other police contact.
But the Federation is worried about the way investigators might interpret clauses around the separation of officers following incidents, officer anonymity and the ability to allow officers to review their own Body Worn Video footage before providing statements.
John Apter, PFEW Chair, said: “Following numerous representations by the Federation, we are pleased that there has been some movement by the IOPC in relation to their statutory guidance and softening of the language used.
“But we still hold concerns about how it will be interpreted by their investigators. Some consensus appears to have been reached on the separation of officers, but the IOPC still maintain it is their ‘preference to separate key policing witnesses’.
“This is an emotive issue for our members, who may have been through an extremely traumatic event where a member of the public has died. It is an area that we will be watching closely to ensure that officers are treated fairly and not made to feel like suspects rather than the witnesses they invariably are.”
He also said there were unanswered questions on the ability of officers to view their body worn video and that officers’ personal details should be kept from the IOPC.
The federation will continue to work with the watchdog to fix these issues. Any guidelines must be ratified by the Home Secretary before they are applied to the 43 Home Office forces.
Mr Apter added: “All we ask is for our members to be treated fairly during the process of any subsequent investigation, rather than our previous experience of investigators trying to find fault and someone to blame.”