MORE than 360 current conduct investigations have gone on for more than a year in England and Wales, the Police Federation has revealed.<\/p>\n
Phill Matthews, PFEW Conduct and Performance Lead, said there are \u201c360-odd\u201d investigations that have gone on beyond 12 months and are now \u201con pause waiting for other processes to happen\u201d.<\/p>\n
Lengthy investigations are detrimental to the officer involved, the service, and the public, the conference in Manchester heard.<\/p>\n
The timeliness of police officers\u2019 conduct hearings has come under the spotlight at the PFEW Conference. The Federation has been fighting for years to speed up investigations, and have had some success, but Phill said there is still more work to do<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIt\u2019s right to go on record that the Independent Office For Police Conduct have improved dramatically in their timeliness of investigations. But there are still over 300 of their cases that are still over 12 months that are just paused.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to put the right spotlights on where those delays are happening \u2013 whether they\u2019re with PSDs, whether they\u2019re with coroners, whether they\u2019re with magistrates, or wherever those delays sit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kathie Cashell, Director of Strategy and Impact for the IOPC, said improvements had been made to the speed of investigations and that the commission was cognisant of officer wellbeing.<\/p>\n
She told the Conference: \u201cWe now complete about a third of our investigations within six months, and over 90% of core investigations are completed within 12 months. However, that isn\u2019t the end of the story for the officers and the complainants involved, as the proceedings that might happen after that can add a significant amount of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nottinghamshire\u2019s Chief Constable Craig Guildford added: \u201cI am optimistic about the future of the system, because we\u2019ve worked with the stakeholders to push more of a learning system and reflective practice for the majority of issues that come to the fore.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think that\u2019s a positive starting point. We are all committed to the fairness and to the timeliness of hearings and most importantly to learning from some of these cases.\u201d<\/p>\n