POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY

• Organisational & individual accountability -see Jones (2012)

  • The Home Secretary is responsible for national strategy and security and, jointly with the Mayor of London, The Metropolitan Police
  • Police and Crime Commissioners (the Mayor in London and Greater Manchester) are responsible for the strategy and budgets of the 43 forces in E&W
• Organisational & individual accountability -see Jones (2012)

  • Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fore and Rescue Service (HMIC FRS) inspect police performance
  • Chief Constables (Commissioner in The Met) are responsible for the direction and control of their forces
  • The courts, media, pressure groups and other bodies also have a role in making the police accountable
• The IPCC and IOPC

  • The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) was established in 2004 by the Police Reform Act 2002 and was replaced by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in 2018 by the Policing and Crime Act 2017. Both had similar powers but the IOPC has a much bigger budget than the IPCC
• The IPCC and IOPC

  • INVESTIGATIONS. Independently investigate, manage or supervise investigations into all deaths following police contact and other ‘serious and sensitive’ allegation.
  • POWERS. IPCC/IOPC investigators have all the powers of a police constable
  • APPEALS.  Most other complaints are dealt with by the force concerned in the first instance but complainants have a right of appeal to the IPCC/IOPC.  
  • CONFIDENCE AND LEARNING. Duty to improve police’s own handling of complaints, improve confidence in the system and ensure lessons are learnt
• The IPCC and IOPC

  BUDGET

  • IPCC 2004/5=£ 22.5 million; 2009/10=£ 35 million;  
  • IOPC 2021/22=£ 105 million
• What is police corruption?

  Kutnjak Ivkovic: ‘Police corruption is an action or omission, a promise of action or omission, or an attempted action or omission, committed by a police officer or a group of police officers, characterized by the police officer’s misuse of the official position, motivated in significant part by the achievement of personal gain (2005, cited in Newburn 2015:3)
• What is police corruption?

  Punch: ‘…police corruption is not one thing as it takes diverse forms and can alter over time.  It relates centrally to abuse of office, of power and of trust and manifests itself in many ways but most frequently in consensual and exploitative relations with criminals, in discrimination against certain groups, in excessive violence and in infringements in the rule of law and dues process.’ (2009:31)
• What is police corruption?

  Kleinig: ‘Police officers act corruptly when, in exercising or failing to exercise their authority, they act with the primary intention of furthering private or departmental/divisional advantage (1996, cited in Newburn 2015:3)
• 'Apples’, ‘barrels’ and ‘orchards'

  Just a few rotten apples?

  After allegations of widespread corruption in The Met in the 1970s, an outside force, Dorset Police, was brought in to investigate. This was known as ‘Operation Countryman’. The investigation was obstructed and achieved little.
• Newburn: “This canard can be dealt with quickly” (2015:7)

  • Too many examples of institutional corruption for this to be credible
  • Narrows the scope of attention
  • Implies everything else OK
  • Focuses on punishment of individuals . 
• NYPD Commissioner, Patrick V Murphy: 

  • “The task of corruption control is to examine the barrel, not just the apples – the organization, not just the individuals in it – because corrupt police are made, not born.”
  • To 180 of his police commanders: 

  “I hold you personally responsible for any misconduct within the ranks at any level of your command”

  • Murphy as also highly critical of the relationship between police chiefs and politicians and the opportunities this created for corruption
• Punch:

  “I wish to use the metaphor of “rotten orchards” to indicate that it is sometimes not the apple, or even the barrel, that is rotten but the system(or significant parts of the system).” (2003:172)
• A RECURRING PROBLEM?

  Sir John Stevens in 2003:

  “We used to think that corruption was cyclical. We now know that is wrong. It is not corruption that is cyclical – but our response to it”
• A RECURRING PROBLEM?

  The Daniel Morgan Independent Inquiry 2021

  “These failings do not all automatically fall within the definition of corruption. Some may result from professional incompetence or poor management. However, when the failures cannot reasonably be explained as genuine error and indicate dishonesty for the benefit of the organisation, in the Panel’s view they amount to institutional corruption.  A lack of candour on the part of the Metropolitan Police in respect of its failings is shown by a lack of transparency, as well as prevarication and obfuscation.” (2021:1021)
• A RECURRING PROBLEM?

  Sir Mark Rowley 2022 (The new Met Commissioner)

  New Anti-Corruption and Abuse Command in Commissioner's reform of the Met
• Some issues of law and policy

  The criminal law ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ – sure the defendant is guilty

  • Individual responsibility
  • 1967 Criminal Law Act: “A person may use such force as is reasonable in the prevention of crime.”
  • Defence of themselves or others – ‘proportionate and necessary’
  • Must be: ‘Honestly held belief’ (R V Griffiths (1988) – But recognises: ‘agony of  the moment’
  • ‘Shoot to incapacitate’

  But for misconduct the ‘civil test’ applies and the test is whether the officer’s honest but mistaken belief was ‘reasonable’
• 7th July 2005

  • 4 suicide bomb attacks on the London transport system
  • 52 people killed; over 700 injured
  • All four bombers died
• 14th July 2005

  • Two weeks later
  • Four failed attacks – only detonators explode
  • ‘Intention to cause large scale loss of life’
  • Attackers at large
  • 3900 calls to anti-terrorist hot line 7 - 14th July
• Special circumstances?

  • Operation Kratos:   No warning. Shot to the head.  Decision on command of senior officer  (the Designated Senior Officer)
  • Special ammunition
  • Specially trained firearms officers and commanders
• Myths and Propaganda

  “During Sir Ian Blair's tenure as police commissioner, the Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by police in cold blood in circumstances which seemed suspicious then, and have become more so as the facts have unravelled during his inquest”

  Stephen Glover, Daily Mail 2 December 2008
• Investigation Challenges

  • The IPCC was new and inexperienced – established April 2004
  • Delay in referring the investigation
  • Missing/faulty cctv
  • Police and witnesses give conflicting accounts about whether a warning was given
  • Officers delay and collaborate in writing their notes. Refuse to answer questions in interview.
  • Surveillance log altered
  • Disinformation about Jean Charles de Menezes
  • Inaccurate information provided by the MPS
• The altered surveillance log

  Witness ZAI carried out an Electrostatic Detection Apparatus (ESDA) on the entry. He is of the opinion that the original entry read:

  ‘a split second view of his face. I believe it was NT. I told …’

  The entry was changed to read:

  ‘a split second view of his face AND I believe it was NOT NT. I told …’