“Post-incident procedures offer officers the proper protection”

POLICE officers must ensure they contact their Federation representatives if ever they are involved in an incident in which a member of the public is killed or seriously injured.

Forces adhere to a “post-incident procedure” following such events, but police officers often do not know their rights during such high stress times that can see them losing their jobs, according to Essex Police Federation.

Steve Taylor, Federation Chairman, said: “Not every incident involving death or serious injury, believe it or not, activates the post-incident procedure and whilst we’d take steps to remedy that status internally in the force, it is a fact that people have gone through investigations without the proper protection that post-incident procedure can offer. And, unfortunately, those investigations have in the past led to officers losing their jobs.”

Steve warned that he was not scaremongering, and that it was the Federation’s responsibility to alert the risks officers were up against. There is a misconception that PIP only applies to firearms officers, but actually any officer on the front line could fall under investigation, so it is important to attain representation, the Federation said.

He added: “We don’t expect everyone to know the complete ins and outs of post-incident procedure; it’s a really complex area. But the very least you should know is, identify that, as a result of police contact, we may have played a part in a person being seriously injured, or even killed. If that little paragraph fits what you’ve dealt with, please, please, please contact the Federation.”

Out of hours the control room has a 24-hour contact number for the Federation, and during office hours, members can contact one of 33 reps either by email or mobile phone.

Mr Taylor added: “It might be that the decision is taken that it’s not a post-incident procedure, but that doesn’t mean that you still can’t avail yourself of some advice before you engage in that investigation.”

“Post-incident procedure, more often than not, is the start of that ‘just in case’ journey, and can result in officers facing the most horrendous investigations, over years, culminating in visits to the very highest courts in the land. We at the Federation, from the very, very beginning, are the only people there looking after that officer, the individual.”