\u201cWE can\u2019t keep having this merry-go-round where an officer goes through hell and then has to go through it again because there\u2019s an automatic judicial review being triggered.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent\u2019s reaction to the news that Chief Constables have been told by the NPCC to make submissions to chairs of independent misconduct hearing panels.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the APCC & NPCC Partnership Summit 2021, NPCC Chair Martin Hewitt said he had asked all Chief Constables to chair more accelerated hearings, \u201cwherever the grounds are met, to swiftly determine the facts\u201d, and to make submissions to Legally Qualified Chairs \u201cwherever appropriate, so that sanctions always meet the gravity of an offence\u201d.<\/p>\n
The NPCC also advised Chief Constables to seek judicial reviews when dismissal wasn\u2019t the outcome, and it wanted the College of Policing guidance amended on the matter.<\/p>\n
Steve said: \u201cWe should not be allowing external influences. The whole point of the police misconduct arena is that there is an independent chair to assess the facts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should not then be having automatic situations where things are going to judicial review as a matter of principle, just because they haven\u2019t got the answer that they want.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a case of, \u2018They\u2019ve not been able to discipline this officer so we\u2019re just going to keep trying until we do\u2019. The system is there, it\u2019s independently there, regulations are written to back it up, and it should be allowed to take its course.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat works both ways for officers who are found guilty and are guilty, and officers who are innocent and rightly found innocent. We can\u2019t keep having this merry-go-round where an officer goes through hell and then has to go through it again because there\u2019s an automatic judicial review being triggered.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll certainly be putting pressure on the NPCC to stop doing that. Because what they\u2019re essentially saying is fundamentally promoting an unfair system. We just have to keep applying pressure and judicially reviewing at every turn everything that we see is inappropriate. As a Federation we\u2019re certainly not afraid to judicially review decisions and processes that we\u2019re not happy with.\u201d<\/p>\n