Length of IPCC investigations is ‘not acceptable’

POLICE officers subject to complaints should be investigated with the same speed that officers are expected to use when conducting their own investigations.

Mark Smith, Chairman of Essex Police Federation, said it is not acceptable that IPCC investigations take so long.

He was speaking after it emerged that the average time it takes to settle grievances has increased by almost two weeks over the past year.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission’s annual report into complaints statistics showed that the time taken to resolve complaints in 2014/15 had increased to 147 days, 12 days longer than the year before.

He said: “I think complaints should be investigated far quicker. It’s not acceptable.

“Nobody should go through that, whether they are or aren’t guilty. It could take two years and someone is found guilty of a misconduct offence, or it could take two years and there’s nothing in the complaint.

“Either way, it needs to be quicker and we need to sort the investigations out for police officers.

“We don’t put the public through that. We’re expected to update the public and be as quick as we possibly can with dealing with the public and looking after them, but that doesn’t apply to police officers, it appears.”