Restorative justice and police complaints

Report: 15
Date: 12 July 2001
By: Clerk

Summary

This paper provides a high level position with regard to investigations into public complaints and internal enquiries within the MPS. The purpose of the paper is to bring to the attention of the MPA the existing position both in terms of investigation and the corresponding decision making process within the MPS. It also highlights some concerns within the PCA with regard to deteriorating turn round times and concludes with an outline of the action being taken within the MPS to deal with the issues.

A. Recommendation

That Members are asked to note the contents of this report.

B. Supporting information

1. Many of the policies and procedures that deal with investigations into wrong doing by police officers, either directly by public complaints or through internal investigations, are dealt with under primary legislation. These are The Police Discipline Regulations 1985 (the old regulations) and The Police (Conduct) Regulations 1999 (the new regulations). The legislation itself has also been the subject of considerable legal debate in the courts by way of formal appeal and judicial review. This has resulted in many areas of the Regulation becoming a legal quagmire.

2. The previous MPS area configuration had led to differing working practices and performance within the various units but had been complicated by the changing role of what was then CIB(2) and CIB(3). The MPS had recognised the different performance in terms of investigation of complaints and internal investigations and used this aspect of the complaints and discipline procedures as a pilot Best Value review under The Local Government Act of 1999. Part of this work has involved the preparation of consistent and reliable statistical information from what is in essence an antiquated IT system that supports the complaint and discipline processes. Indeed, it is only in the past few weeks that the MPS has been in a position to implement some of the software changes necessary to interrogate the current IT systems on a corporate MPS-wide basis. This system shows that there are approximately 1,750 total cases currently ongoing within the MPS at present. Of these, 250 are sub- judice as they are linked to ongoing criminal court cases, 50 cases are at the CPS and more than 200 are with the PCA awaiting their deliberations. This leaves a total number of live cases of about 1,250.

3. A broad analysis of the live cases is shown in the following table:

In percentage terms 39 per cent of public complaints are over 120 days and 16 per cent over 240 days whilst for internal investigations the figures are 65 per cent and 44 per cent respectively.

4. At the time of corporate restructuring two years ago it was recognised that because of the geographical split into five separate units, complaint investigation was suffering from a lack of corporacy in approach and many submissions were not reaching the required standard. In response, a Best Value Review was conducted that identified a number of significant structural and procedural weaknesses. Recognising that it was these weaknesses that were fundamentally undermining performance, Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) Borough Support Command, who deal with all but the most serious complaints pan-London, have embarked upon substantial structural change that is having its own impact on current performance.

5. The new arrangements, expected to take a further 18 months to fully implement, include the introduction of a new set of corporate standards designed to improve investigative standards and timeliness. These will shortly be tested and evaluated at the Norbury Branch Office prior to rollout pan-London. A Performance Review Framework, with supporting Management Information that provides for more detailed monitoring and management of cases, is now in place and the focus is very much on improving quality and timeliness. The Command was recently inspected by HMIC and whilst commenting on the MPS average completion time of 131.5 days for investigations, they acknowledged the significant workloads involved and were very positive about the changes and initiatives being implemented. They intend to return in 12 months time to evaluate progress.

6. Based on MPS data over the past 17 months the PCA decision has been obtained within 60 days in 68 per cent of cases. However, it should be pointed out that in more than 9 per cent of cases the PCA decision is still awaited. Worryingly, over the period there is a downward trend in the number of decisions reached within 30 days. This is aggravated by the fact that historically there has been a seasonal trend that shows improvement at this time of year, which has not materialised in 2001. The PCA themselves are concerned at the length of time they are taking to make decisions. Whereas in the past it was mainly complicated cases that took in excess of six months for a decision to be reached, there have been several cases recently where delays of this length of time are taking place even for simple cases.

7. Looking at the issue of decision making once files containing substantiated matters are passed from the Operation and Investigation side of the Command for a discipline decision, a year ago there was invariably a delay of at least six months before a decision had been taken, let alone the delay in then forming a hearing. This process has been considerably refined and a target set of decisions made in 95 per cent of cases within 20 working days. This target has been met for the first three months of its inception.

8. Considering the hearings that have taken place in the first six months of 2001, 74 officers have appeared for a total of 57 cases. Of these, 25 officers admitted the offence. The average time between proposal of charge and hearing guilty pleas is 15 weeks, with the shortest time being 33 days following the conviction of two officers at the Central Criminal Court of serious criminal charges. The longest time taken was 376 days against an officer who faced five charges and received a reprimand on each of the charges. Of the 25 officers who admitted offences, 16 were for hearings where officers had been found guilty at Criminal Courts and of the other nine, five admitted the offence at, or soon after, service of papers for non-legal representation Boards. The remaining four officers indicated a plea of guilty either close to or at the time of the hearing of legal representation Boards. It is worthy of note that in the past three years 75 per cent of officers appearing before legal representation Boards have received the major sanctions of dismissal from the Service, requirement to resign or reduction in rank.

9. With regard to the time lapse between proposal of charges and date of hearing for not guilty pleas, the average lapse time is 39 weeks with the shortest being 47 days. The longest delay was 761 days for two officers who had made false expense claims where each officer was fined a total of seven days' pay. In the past six months eight cases have been heard involving 14 officers where the lapsed time exceeded one year. Of these, one was discontinued following legal argument, two cases were not proven, two officers were cautioned, six were reprimanded and the remaining three received fines.

10. The delays in placing officers before discipline boards and hearings is worsening as the backlog of outstanding complaints and improvements in the decision making processes are coming forward. The MPS currently has two Board Room suites which are fully booked until the end of February 2002 with some dates being allocated beyond that period. A third Board Room is being brought on line in October/November 2001 which will mitigate one problem, but then highlight a second relating to the availability of senior officers to hear the cases. Under the old Regulations, three ACPO are required to sit and hear cases whilst under the new Regulations this becomes two Superintending ranks with one ACPO rank. This is a very heavy commitment and requires ACPO officers to sit on these hearings for a minimum of eight weeks per year.

11. In an effort to deal with all of these areas of backlog, workshops are being held to precisely identify problem areas, followed by the development of Action Plans to improve the overall situation. The Action Plans will cover a wide range of remedial activities to include improvements in investigation processes, decision making processes and general administrative arrangements that build both on innovation from within the MPS and the consideration of good practice from other police forces. These Action Plans will be available for consideration by the Authority at the October meeting.

12. One further area of work which it is appropriate to mention relates to Appeals. Under the old Regulations these were dealt with through Assistant Commissioners before consideration by Secretary of State Tribunals. Under the new Regulations these Tribunals have been replaced by Police Appeals Tribunals that are the direct responsibility of the MPA. Significant delays in these processes have also been identified but the information is currently insufficient to enable proper analysis of the problem to be undertaken. Again this will be reported on in October.

C. Financial implications

There are no financial implications in this paper.

D. Background papers

None.

E. Contact details

The author of this report is Commander Graham James, Director Discipline and Civil Actions, Directorate of Professional Standards.

For information contact:

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

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