WE NEED the public to have confidence in the police. Without it, people will be less likely to report crimes and less willing to co-operate with police investigations. An important way to bolster confidence is for the police to demonstrate that, when a member of the public files a complaint, it is taken seriously and investigated. Levels of trust will rise if, at the conclusion of a complaints procedure, appropriate measures are seen to be taken against the officer who has behaved improperly.
There is reason to believe that the complaints procedures in Scotland's police forces are not as rigorous as they should be. As The Herald reports today, more than 90 police officers who were the subject of public complaints avoided internal investigation procedures by resigning or retiring early in the past six years. The total rises to more than 100 when figures forTayside for the past 10 years are added.
The figures led Les Browne, a campaigner on miscarriages of justice issues, to claim that officers could beat the system. Rosemarie McIlwhan of the Scottish Human Rights Centre said the figures showed that officers could "wriggle out"of investigations. It is perhaps simply coincidence that this number of officers should decide to leave the police when they are the subject of a complaint and about to be investigated (on average more than 15 a year). There are advantages for officers in opting for that course of action.
One is financial. Officers with more than 25 years' service, aged 50 or more, or retiring on ill-health grounds usually secure immediate access to their pension. An investigation could conceivably put that at risk. An officer going early would also leave the force without a blemish on his or her record. Disciplinary procedures could jeopardise that. Also, forces would have their reputation tarnished by having an officer with a black mark against their name.
But these considerations are not necessarily in the public's interest. If doing a deal meant that a case of misconduct was not investigated, and disciplinary action was avoided, that would work against the public interest and the notion of natural justice. It would also undermine public confidence in the police. The Scottish Executive is consulting on whether to establish an independent police complaints commission in Scotland. The case for such a body, with powers not only to call for an investigation into complaints but to investigate them itself, seems overwhelming. There are concerns that the current complaints procedures could be open to abuse.
Public confidence in the police will not be as high as it could be as long as these concerns persist.
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