Commissioner responds to Home Office Accountability Review and report into IOPC

Earlier today, the Home Office published a significant update on its review into police accountability.

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: “Independent scrutiny of police actions is vital. It needs to deal effectively with officers unfit to serve and also support officers doing their best to protect communities from the dangerous and prolific.

“The public expect police officers to act decisively to keep them safe, but an accountability system that is slow, unfair and ineffective has damaged their confidence to do so. It empowers criminals and leaves communities less protected.

“The Home Secretary’s recognition that many officers have lost trust in the system and lack confidence to take the actions necessary to protect the public should be welcomed. In turn, it should concern communities and officers alike.

"The measures announced today are a step in the right direction towards putting that right, but they deliver only very limited tangible progress for officers in the short term. The commitment to consult on substantial further change is positive, but officers across the country will now be looking to Government to ensure that it happens swiftly and is followed by implementation. It is only then that they will begin to have the reassurance they need.

“We know that the public’s confidence in policing has been shaken in recent years. We are relentlessly pursuing and removing those hundreds who corrupt our integrity but meanwhile, we need the tens of thousands of honest and hardworking officers to be able to deal confidently and without hesitation with dangerous and determined criminals. They shouldn’t fear that acting with the best intent could leave their lives upturned for years.

“This fear increases risks to communities. Over nearly two years, the use of stop and search has more than halved, from almost 20,000 stops in January 2022 to just over 9,000 in December 2023. Almost two-thirds of frontline leaders in the Met say officers working to them are reluctant to use their powers due to potential repercussions.

“The Independent Review of the IOPC, also published today, gives a clear indication why officers are so worried and why their concerns are justified. It found that investigations take too long, that there is insufficient transparency and that too many investigators lack the basic skills or understanding of policing they need to reach the right decisions and they have failed to learn or improve by responding to previous reports. While we very much look forward to working with the new IOPC Director General as she drives forward improvements, we can’t underestimate the damage that has already been done to officer confidence.

“Policing is united on the need for urgent accountability reform and we will continue to make the case, across Parliament, to ensure that these positive first steps are turned into delivery that makes a difference not just for officers, but for the public more widely.”

Background:

The Home Office review of police accountability was announced in September 2023.

We welcomed the review and alongside other forces and national representative bodies in policing we've contributed evidence in the hope that it would make far reaching and genuinely impactful recommendations.

The changes we called for included but were not limited to:

• A change to the thresholds for when the IOPC can launch misconduct investigations, including when it is appropriate to start an investigation and when it is appropriate to progress to a hearing. It should not be easier to start an IOPC investigation into something that happens on duty, than for officers to investigate a crime.

• The need for CPS charging decisions to take account of police training and specify how an officer has deliberately departed from their training in order to justify criminal charges being brought.

• The need to provide a rationale to accompany a decision to prosecute, explaining whether training or individual decision making is at fault. This would help to determine whether interim action relating to that training needed to be considered.

• A change in law so that the criminal law test for use of force and self-defence, rather than the civil test, should be reinstated for police misconduct cases.

• A change to the criminal standard of proof for unlawful killing verdicts at inquests and relevant public inquiries.

• The introduction of new mandatory time limits for misconduct investigations and prioritisation by the CPS and courts in cases where police officers have acted in the execution of their duty.

• A stronger presumption of anonymity for officers, at least until the point of a guilty verdict in a criminal court, with wider factors being considered as part of the judicial consideration.

We have provided evidence to the Home Office to support the suggestion that significant concerns about accountability mechanisms are damaging officers’ confidence to use their powers:

• Over nearly two years, the use of stop and search has more than halved, from almost 20,000 stops in January 2022 to just over 9,000 in December 2023. During this period, a number of high-profile cases have been investigated by the IOPC. In addition, we see a continual rise in people filming encounters on the street and then putting partial versions of encounters online to generate criticism. It is not uncommon now for officers who are targeted in this way to be subject to racist abuse and even death threats online. This reducing confidence to act has a specific impact on the use of stop and search, which is a valuable tool in our work to take knives off the street and tackle violence and drug offences in particular.
• In discussions with more than 100 frontline leaders, almost two-thirds said officers working to them were reluctant to use their powers due to potential repercussions. They spoke of officers raising serious anxieties about fears of reprisals and a critical lack of confidence in the complaints and misconduct processes.
• In discussions with another group of almost 50 leaders, all expressed concern that Police Constables (PCs) have become much more reluctant to make decisions independently. They described how PCs are seeking out their Sergeants to make decisions on their behalf so that they are covered in the event something goes wrong. This puts an unrealistic pressure on leaders and, of course, blunts operational effectiveness while decisions are sought. 
• Early indications are that proactive arrests (i.e. those generated through proactive choice by officers to use powers such as stopping vehicles, stop and search etc.) have declined since 2022.