Case Management Protocol update

Report: 11
Date: 14 December 2006
By: Chief Executive and Clerk

Summary

The purpose of the report is to provide Members with an update on the application of the Case Management Protocol.

The Protocol applies to ‘live’ investigations undertaken by the Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) into complaints or other allegations of misconduct against police officers. Its purpose is to enable the MPA’s Professional Standards and Complaints Committee to scrutinise cases, which have exceeded the target time frame for completion and to place a requirement on DPS to justify time taken to conduct an investigation and, if appropriate, to give reasons for the need for a continued investigation.

The report includes an update on an investigation, which was reported as being an on-going investigation with an age profile of 208 days at the time of the last PSCC meeting. In response to a request for further information by Members, the investigating officer has prepared a progress report (refer to exempt report at Appendix 1).

A. Recommendations

That members receive the report and note the findings.

B. Supporting information

1. At the last PSCC meeting, Members were advised that the MPA’s oversight capacity, in particular the ability to monitor the progress of ‘live’ public complaints investigations, would be enhanced as a consequence of DPS authorising the MPA’s Professional Standards Officer to access the Tribune System.

2. Direct access to Tribune enables the MPA to scrutinise case management information and perform regular reviews on the progress of ‘live’ public complaint and conduct investigations.

3. In November 2006, the MPA’s Professional Standards Officer was provided with restricted access to the Tribune System. Access is via an MPA terminal. Training has also recently been provided to enable the MPA officer to interpret the case management data and scrutinise individual cases irrespective of age profile.

4. Provision to the MPA, on a weekly basis, of Investigating Officer Workload Analysis reports (‘IOWA’) [1] also continues.

5. When the last IOWA report was received on 24 November 2006, there was a total of 199 public complaints which had exceeded the 120 days age profile and a further 138 cases which were over 240 days old [the MPS total figures include cases investigated by all DPS units and also cases currently being handled by OCUs]. For the same reporting period, the MPS total for live misconduct investigations over 120 days old amounted to 46 with a further 21 investigations exceeding 240 days old.

6. A sample of the oldest cases has been reviewed via the Tribune system and a request has been submitted for provision of further information in respect of various individual cases from the following regions: South West, South East and North West. The selection also includes a public complaint, which is being dealt with by Internal Investigations Command (Specialist Investigations). The respective complaint is showing on Tribune as being under investigation for 792 days.

7. Details of the status of the investigations and the reasons why the investigations have exceeded the target time frame will be made available to PSCC Members in January 2007.

Role of DPS Independent Review Team

8. The MPA’s latest selection of cases does not include any public complaints that are being investigated by IIC North East. This is deliberate and takes account of the proactive programme of work which the DPS Independent Review Team (IRT)’ are undertaking to dip sample ‘live’ and finalised investigations from the Intelligence, Investigation and Prevention Commands.

9. To date, IRT have selected two ‘live’ public complaints investigations each with an age profile of over 120 days.

10. Unlike the MPA’s scrutiny of on-going investigations, which is heavily dependent upon information supplied by the Investigating Officers in response to a specific questions raised by MPA officers, officers within IRT have the benefit of direct access to complaints files which include manual progress and decision logs (the MPA is currently unable to access this information directly). As a consequence, IRT is able to independently review the way in which investigations are being conducted in a manner which the MPA is unable to do.

11. Upon conclusion, IRT’s findings will be reported to the Head of Unit and shared with the MPA.

12. In the interim, in response to a request by Members at the last PSCC meeting, an update has been provided on the progress of a public complaints investigation, which was reported to have exceeded the target time frame for completion (refer to exempt report at Appendix 1).

13. Members should note that the investigation has now been completed and DPS ‘intrusive management’ of complaints handled by Croydon BOCU has recently taken place. The outcome of DPS intervention is reported to be an improvement in the standard of complaints handling and the prevention of further excessive delays in dealing with complaints at BOCU level.

Additional enquiries raised by MPA

14. In addition to raising enquiries in accordance with the Case Management Protocol, MPA officers have also made some supplementary enquiries concerning, for example, the method by which cases are allocated to Investigating Officers (IOs).

15. The request has been prompted by an apparent imbalance in the number of cases allocated to individual IOs. For example, across all four regions, IIC North West [2] (‘IIC NW’) traditionally has the highest number of cases under investigation (a total of 153 cases at 24 November 2006). However, the number of Investigating Officers within IIC NW is the same as for those regions, which generally receive a lower number of public complaints. As a consequence, individual IOs within IIC NW are frequently responsible for a disproportionate number of ‘live’ investigations. It is however recognised that workloads fluctuate and arrangements are already in place to transfer responsibility for complaints investigations between the regions [3].

16. DPS has also been invited to review the quality of the IOWA data and has been asked to determine why the categorisation of cases in terms of level of ‘risk’ and ‘complexity’ is not properly shown within the IOWA report (to note: over 90% of ‘live‘ investigations are flagged as ‘risk’ and ‘complexity’ not shown on CDS).

17. Furthermore, a meeting has taken place between MPA officers and officers within the Independent Review Team. The outcome of preliminary discussions concerning the feasibility of creating electronic decision and progress logs, which are accessible via the Tribune system, is currently awaited.

18. A substantive response to the MPA’s requests for further information, as described above, will be presented at the next PSCC meeting on 8 February 2007.

C. Race and equality impact

1. The purpose of the Protocol is to ensure that individuals who are the subject of DPS investigations are treated in an equitable and proportionate matter. The Protocol reflects a recommendation of the Morris Inquiry.

2. An initial Race Equalities Impact Assessment has been conducted to ensure that the Protocol promotes equalities and does not disadvantage any of the equality target groups. Although that assessment is still awaiting formal endorsement, the results have established that a high adverse/negative impact does not exist for any equality group.

D. Financial implications

In order to limit the overall cost of introducing and administering the procedure, the Case Management Protocol needs have been built around the MPS’s existing management information. Although the new arrangement increases the time spent by Members and MPA officers in undertaking their oversight role, the cost of administering the procedure is capable of being met from the existing budget.

E. Background papers

None.

F. Contact details

Report author(s): Claire L Lister, MPA.

For more information contact:

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

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