Policing the Police – international conference

Report: 9
Date: 12 January 2004
By: Clerk

Summary

An International Conference of police organisations took place in Belfast from 5 to 7 November 2003. The Chairman of this Committee, with the Clerk and Deputy Clerk, represented the MPA. The MPS was also represented, and the Commissioner gave one of the keynote speeches on tackling police corruption. This report outlines the content of the Conference and draws out some learning points.

A. Recommendation

That the Committee note the report

B. Supporting information

1. The international conference on Policing the Police was organised and hosted by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. It was in part a celebration of the first three years’ operation of the Ombudsman, and also of the work of the Police Service of Northern Ireland towards normalising policing in Northern Ireland and improving police community (PSNI) relations. It was the first of its kind in Europe, and it attracted a large attendance of practitioners from police forces and police oversight bodies from the UK, Europe, North America, Australasia, Africa and Asia, as well as researchers involved in this work.

2. The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland provides an independent, impartial investigation of complaints that aims to be efficient effective and as transparent as possible, in order to win public confidence. Investigators are not members of the PSNI. The Ombudsman can investigate complaints referred to her by the Secretary of State or the PSNI or the Northern Ireland Policing Board (the police authority for PSNI), and she may also react to incidents about which no complaint has been made if she believes it is in the public interest.

3. The Chairman of this Committee, with the Clerk and Deputy Clerk, represented the MPA. The MPS was also represented. The Commissioner gave one of the keynote speeches on tackling police corruption. The Clerk and Deputy Clerk, with Matthew Lohn (from the MPA’s solicitors), delivered papers in a syndicate session discussing the Role of Police Authorities, along with presenters from Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate Constabulary (HMIC).

4. The Plenary sessions and syndicates were structured around a number of key themes:

1. Internal mechanisms for police accountability, with a strong international dimension, which examined in particular the concepts and practicalities of accountability in an ‘audit society’, and examined two contrasting models from Boston and Belfast.
2. Independent mechanisms for police oversight – drawing together experiences from a wide variety of jurisdictions in criminal investigations of police conduct, police complaints systems and diversity, and the development of alternative resolution models such as mediation and restorative justice.
3. Police use of force – covering US and NI experience, and with an emphasis on the human rights issues.
4. Tackling Police Corruption – in which the Commissioner delivered a paper on Scotland Yard’s strategic response to the danger of Corruption, alongside contributors from the Police Integrity Commission of New South Wales, the Independent Commission against corruption in Hong Kong, and academic analysis of the pathways into police crime.

5. The papers and presentations at the Conference are expected to be published on the conference web site in due course, and Members will be advised when they are available. In the meantime, this paper highlights just a few points that struck the MPA delegates as of special relevance and force.

• The importance of adequate levels of resources to make independent investigation mechanisms capable of delivering results, and to achieve high levels of public satisfaction. This is a crucial lesson from international experience.
• It is important for accountability systems to have a range of responses/tools that can be used flexibly with a ‘problem solving’ orientation – ranging from informal resolution techniques, formal mediation or restorative justice, to discipline.
• In terms of promoting accountability, a key issue is to transform police culture from primarily self-protective to primarily self-policing.
• In Northern Ireland there has been a dramatic change from an emphasis on managing conduct by reference to definitions of ‘misconduct’ to a positive statement of ethics, developed explicitly to be compliant with the ECHR.
• Systematic research into complaints and into ‘what works’ in complaint resolution is vital if good practice is to be captured and disseminated.
• Research in the UK into informal resolution showed that there was a low level of understanding of it by PCs, inadequate training at all levels and a low level of satisfaction with outcomes by PCs, who frequently felt the process to be unfair.
• There is widespread belief in the potential benefits from mediation or restorative justice techniques, but as yet little experience of them in practice in the complaints context.
• Research showed that most complainants wanted an apology and an explanation, with assurance that the Service will take steps, by training and otherwise, to improve; very few wanted compensation.
• Complainants were dissatisfied by the absence of apology or explanation and by what they perceived as an unfair process. A crucial finding was that ‘officers have to be able to say sorry’.
• Police oversight bodies, such as police authorities, must give leadership as well as providing sustained, focussed and rigorous monitoring of complaints trends, and of force performance in the resolution of complaints.

C. Equality and diversity implications

Action to improve the effectiveness of complaints processes and improve complainant satisfaction will help to improve confidence in policing on the part of minority communities

D. Financial implications

The costs of attendance at the conference were met within budgets. There are no other financial implications.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: David Riddle

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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