NEW DATA has revealed the way that misconduct cases in Thames Valley Police have been handled.
Since its establishment in 2018, the Independent Office for Police Complaints (IOPC) has found 12 officers and three police staff as having a case to answer for misconduct.
When heard against the force’s tribunal, misconduct was proven against seven officers and one staff member. And each person was given management action.
Seven of the cases referred to death or serious injury having occurred shortly after contact with police.
A spokesperson for Thames Valley Police said that the term “management action” was used prior to February 2020 when regulations changed, and only for occasions where there was a minor breach of the Standards of Professional Behaviour.
These, they said, would not justify formal disciplinary proceedings.
“The behaviour is on the lower end of the scale and may only warrant words of advice in the form of management action,” they added. “Each individual case is different, so it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment on why written warnings were not given.”
Over the past three years, some 418 misconduct cases were held by 39 forces in England and Wales following an initial investigation by the IOPC.
In 64% of these, panels found officers or staff had committed misconduct or gross misconduct.
Analysis from the BBC found that among these 244 officers, 105 faced no further action.
Ten officers were dismissed, 40 given a written warning and 87 received management action.
Cases involving persistent bullying, the use of racial slurs and deaths of members of the public were among those to see no further action taken.
Janet Alder has been campaigning for a tougher police complaints system since her brother Christopher died on the floor of a custody suite in Hull in 1998.
She is a member of the United Families and Friends Coalition (UFFC), a group of nearly 50 families who have lost individuals in police, psychiatric and prison custody. UFFC has been campaigning for justice for loved ones and stricter regulation of the police since 1999.
Miss Alder said that the investigation showed police forces were still suffering many of the same problems they did in the 1990s such as violence, misogyny and racism and that tougher punishments were needed.
Ron Winch, a former serving police officer of 30 years, said that the force comes from a place of learning with its response to misconduct.
Mr Winch served in the Met before ending his career as a superintendent at West Midlands Police. He is now a criminology lecturer at Birmingham City University.
He said that gross misconduct and misconduct would often have different outcomes.
“Gross misconduct is for really serious issues where, if they are found guilty, the individual involved would expect to lose their job,” he said.
“Misconduct is a slightly separate matter — these are areas where you wouldn’t expect to lose your job. For these areas police governance has long been approaching these issues from a place of learning rather than developing a blame culture.
“The latter can be really toxic, because what it does is force people to try and cover up mistakes, to become ultra-defensive, to cover up whistleblowers.”
Mr Winch said that the Taylor reforms of 2010 were focused on developing an environment of learning, to give a better service to the public.
He added: “But when there is no further action or management action — it’s a bit ambiguous, it really doesn’t mean much to the public.
“It was certainly my experience that management action against officers who were guilty of misconduct could be a number of things. It could be me saying you need to go on a particular development course or take on extra training in a particular aspect. The public don’t really understand the police misconduct process as it’s very difficult to get your head around.”
Kathie Cashell, director of strategy and impact at the IOPC said that accountability takes many forms.
“Answering for your actions and explaining them in public is accountability itself,” she said. “I don’t think misconduct sanctions are the only measure of performance in this system, but I agree they are important.”
She added that its important for all force panels to operate consistently.
“We would welcome a review that looks into whether they are consistent and transparent,” she said.
