A Most Enduring Problem: Police Complaints Reform in England and Wales

Abstract

This article examines police complaints reform in England and Wales during the course of the last 40 years. In that time, four separate complaints systems have been in operation and each has been established at the end of a reform cycle characterised by stages of mounting public concern, appointment of formal inquiries, the legislative process and inception. Recurrent themes identified over the decades have been the trend towards independence, under-representation of complainants’ interests, the longevity of the reform process, and changing police priorities. It is argued that marginalisation of complainants’ interests in the reform process is the principal reason for the endurance of the police complaints problematic.

Reconceptualising the police complaints process as a site of contested legitimacy claims

“…29 s10(1)(a) and S 10(2)PRA 30 s10(1)(b) PRA. 31 S10(1)(c) PRA 32 As regards the lack of clarity as to the IPCC's role generally see Smith 2005. confidence shifts the balance between organisational and constitionally legitimacy towards the former without that shift being expressly stated or justified.…”

“…Further, the police complaints system is an important mechanism for bringing officer misconduct to light (Sanders and Young, 2008: 302) and the efficient and appropriate functioning of the system is considered fundamental to securing public confidence in the police (Maguire and Corbett 1991, Smith 2001, 2005, Waters and Brown 2000. It is consequently taken as axiomatic that the complaints system plays an important role in securing police legitimacy.…”

Plural policing and the challenge of democratic accountability

“…Whilst these observations suggest the public police meet this criteria more than other sectors of policing, significantly the police complaints system has been dogged by perceptions of inefficiency and ineffectiveness, resulting in a succession of 'failed' watchdog bodies (Smith, 2006). Further, notwithstanding the recent infusion of private sector management principles within the public police, in all but fairly serious incidents of misconduct it remains bureaucratically and legally complex to remove or dismiss a police officer for wrong-doing.…”

Policing public protests and corporate social responsibility

“…Many Acts of Parliament have attempted to further contextualise and solidify the ethos of accountability over past decades such as the introduction of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, (Home Office, 1984, and the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, (Home Office, 2005a). Many argue that an effective complaints system is integral to the successful achievements, integration and implementation of a modern day police service, (Smith, 2005). Since the introduction of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), the number of complaints made against the police has increased, and in the first year the commission recorded a 44% increase, followed in subsequent years by more increases, (Gleeson and Grace, 2007).…”