THE Government\u2019s plan to overhaul police vetting is \u201cunrealistic\u201d and a \u201cknee-jerk reaction\u201d, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n
The Home Secretary has asked the College of Policing to strengthen the statutory code of practice for police vetting to make it stricter and clearer for all forces.<\/p>\n
But South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said that, although vetting was important, it would not always identify someone with a predatory mindset and that there needed to be more investment in Professional Standards and Anti-Corruption units.<\/p>\n
Steve said: \u201cThis is a total knee-jerk reaction by the Government. Of course police officers need to be vetted properly, and we do that in our force. But the Government has come out with a totally unrealistic, populist approach to say that everybody in the country is going to be vetted within a certain timeframe, which is practically impossible for police forces, stretched to their limits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also have to acknowledge the elephant in the room \u2013 is there the possibility that vetting will only go so far in detecting the extreme bad apples in policing? We also need colleagues to report bad behaviour, and Professional Standards and Anti-Corruption departments to look into things and root out these people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve added that a lot of rhetoric in the media was \u201creally concerning\u201d, suggesting that every officer who has a complaint against them should be dismissed, whereas he stressed that many complaints were not upheld and were \u201cfalse or vexatious\u201d.<\/p>\n
In addition, there needed to be robust systems in place for officers to report concerns about their colleagues, Steve said.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe in the Federation see officers reporting on their colleagues when they\u2019re doing inappropriate things, and that is acted upon and officers are rooted out.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom speaking to colleagues across the public sector, I genuinely think policing is ahead of the curve when it comes to rooting out inappropriate behaviour.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s what we need to continue to encourage, because we\u2019re in danger of just thinking, \u2018everyone\u2019s vetted, we\u2019re fine\u2019. No, that\u2019s not good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n