PCA on corruption

Part of a document on the Police Complaints Authority website

Blowing the whistle

In dealing with wrongdoing, an effective organisation will have created an ethos within which officers feel able and safe to report breaches of the Code of Conduct or force orders and are confident that any report will be dealt with fairly and thoroughly.

Individual officers have a positive obligation to report misconduct for the first time in the new Code of Conduct.

The provision of information and evidence from fellow officers is often the most effective means of cracking down on serious officer misconduct including corruption. The PCA is aware of cases where internal informants or whistle blowers have come under pressure from their superiors to submit false statements or to withdraw damaging statements about their colleagues' behaviour. To the whistle blower the choice can be to collude with malpractice or to jeopardise their career. At the same time whistle blowers can experience victimisation, intimidation, ostracism and threats by colleagues which inevitably lead to high levels of distress.

The position of the internal informant, particularly if a young officer, can be alarming even if colleagues and management behave impeccably. Information is likely to involve allegations of criminal activity or a breach of the Code of Conduct. Officers have a duty to act on that information, confidentiality cannot be guaranteed and the appearance of the informant as a witness at a hearing may be necessary.

Management has legal obligations to such internal informants. Health and safety legislation requires employers to provide a safe working environment and to ensure, as far as practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of employees.

The PCA commends those police services which have introduced anonymous phone lines direct to senior management in the complaints and discipline department enabling a concerned officer to make initial contact and to explore the implications of providing information.

The PCA also strongly recommends the appointment of an officer friend for the informant, who can advise the informant on their rights, the legal requirements and the process of an investigation. In order to perform the role effectively a short training course will be important. Federation representatives, who may have mixed loyalties, will not necessarily be appropriate for this role.

Specialist units

Analysis of current PCA-supervised investigations has again in 1998-99 highlighted the perils of management failure in relation to specialist police units, especially those engaged in countering drugs crime and burglary. In some cases it would appear that the more successful the unit the less its methods and operations are scrutinised by management. Suitably experienced and reliable supervisors must be co-located with these teams and informant, custody and property procedures must be regularly and independently checked. If not closely and properly supervised, these specialist operations with their close proximity to active and professional criminals can quickly develop into breeding grounds for corrupt practices.

Transport of prisoners

We continue to receive worrying allegations of officers driving vans in a manner calculated to cause injury to prisoners by, for instance, suddenly braking or swerving. The effects on a prisoner, especially when handcuffed to the rear, can be serious and even fatal. One such case in Kent resulted in one prisoner suffering a broken neck and another, various lesser injuries. Following an Authority-supervised investigation two officers were convicted at the Crown Court: the driver on four counts - causing grievous bodily harm and actual bodily harm, wounding and perverting the course of justice - and another PC with perverting the course of justice. The driver was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and the other PC was given a conditional discharge.

CS spray

Despite its authorisation for use on the public, the PCA is concerned there has been no research into the possible interaction of CS spray with anti-psychotic medication. We know that such drugs already produce adverse effects which include changes in heart rate, blurred vision, allergic rashes, rapid breathing, dizziness and changes in blood pressure. Some of these are also suspected side-effects of exposure to CS spray. There may therefore be an increased risk where CS spray is used on someone taking such medication.

There have been a small number of cases of positional asphyxia where CS spray has been used. It is important for research to consider whether there is a causal connection between the use of CS spray and death due to positional asphyxia.

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