“Police officers under investigation are being treated differently. It’s simply not right.”

POLICE officers under investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct are treated differently “to every other class of person”, Essex Police Federation has said.

Chairman Steve Taylor was talking after the Home Secretary announced the possibility that deadlines could be introduced to IOPC investigations for the first time.

Priti Patel told the Police Superintendents’ Association Annual Conference in September that she wanted to fix the “injustice” of lengthy investigations into the country’s cops, which leaves their personal and professional lives in “limbo”.

Steve said: “Police officers under investigation are being treated differently to almost every other class of person. That simply isn’t right and it’s not fair. Officers are being held to account whilst they’re investigated for inordinate amounts of time, which is unfair. This is eroding the confidence that officers out there on the ground have in the very people charged to investigate them.

“It is not just the officer being investigated that’s touched by these investigations; It’s their shift mates, their family members at home. It’s the uncertainty of knowing that in the more serious cases, jobs and mortgages, homes and family life, are all hanging in the balance. And in the worst of cases they’re in the balance for years, and it’s simply not fair.”

The Home Secretary said she was in contact with IOPC Director General Michael Lockwood on the matter.

Steve added: “For too long the way officers have been investigated by an apparently independent system and process has been unfair. Natural justice, amongst other things, is not best served by that, in my view.

“For years we’ve been saying that changes are required in this area. The noises that we’ve been hearing from the new Home Secretary are really encouraging. Even the fact that we’re having this conversation and hearing positive things from people in positions of power, is a good thing and we’re moving in the right direction. We must hope that this thrust survives beyond the likely General Election.”