Liberty has long shared the report’s chief concerns. It concludes that the IPCC is incapable of delivering the required scrutiny and devoid of sufficiently robust procedures – and is deeply mistrusted by an unconvinced population as a result. A litany of slow and inadequate responses to police failings in recent years has brought us here. When police competence and integrity is in doubt it must be addressed swiftly, authoritatively and decisively. This is what the IPCC has been unable to achieve.
The lack of faith is at its sharpest among minority communities, whose members are disproportionately represented in cases of death and serious injury in custody. The statistics make uncomfortable reading. Well over a third of people who’ve died in police custody were from minority groups. Since 1990, there have been nine unlawful killing verdicts following inquests into such deaths – but not a single conviction. Almost half of those who died in or shortly after being in police custody in 2011-12 alone had mental health problems. These figures badly undermine trust in the police and confidence in police oversight.
The HASC report highlighted several possible reasons for IPCC ineffectiveness. Some lie obviously outside of the body’s control – serious funding issues; limitations of their statutory powers; and the existing complaints structure which often sees complaints being investigated by the same police force against whom the complaint was lodged. But some causes are clearly of the IPCC’s own making – flawed investigations; hugely damaging failures in communication; and high levels of former police officers moving straight from the force into investigatory roles at the body.
Full of former police officers, its impartiality is questionable. Its unacceptably long investigations are poorly executed and the body has been previously badly-led. Transparency is very much lacking and victims’ families are often ignored. All of this has understandably led to accusations of bias and incompetence.
The HASC report makes a number of recommendations which Liberty has also raised in the past. It suggests IPCC investigations often commence too late and take too long, and recognises most serious cases should be investigated by the body independently rather than by individual forces. The report also calls for the soon to be created National Crime Agency and private companies tasked with delivering policing services to be subject to the IPCC’s remit. Furthermore, it calls for IPCC investigators to take immediate control of crime scenes where there has been a death in custody, and for police officers to be interviewed about any serious custody incident under caution to ensure their evidence is later admissible in court and to provide them with the same protection as any suspected member of the public.
Hopefully the report’s constructive recommendations will pave the way for change. Since the Coalition Government has come to power it has completely overhauled our police forces – from politicised local policing to accelerated privatisation. Reports such as this suggest Ministers should focus less on headline-grabbing gimmicks and more on the unglamorous work of institutional police accountability.
Britain’s proud
model of policing by consent demands the public’s trust and both our forces and
the wider population deserve a truly independent police watchdog with real
competence and bite. A properly robust body – one ensuring good governance, true
accountability and high levels of professionalism – is our only hope of
restoring faith.
