MOVES to replace pursuing misconduct cases with training, development and personal performance improvements have been billed as a step in the right direction by Essex Police Federation.<\/p>\n
The PFEW wants to reduce the number of officers going through lengthy and often unnecessary misconduct cases by 80% saying that training, mediation and restorative action should be used, wherever appropriate instead.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Figures also show that more than 70% of police misconduct cases are eventually classified as \u2018no case to answer\u2019.<\/p>\n
Steve Taylor, Essex Police Federation Chairman, said the new Performance Requiring Improvement (PRI) measures, due to go live later this year, are a move in the right direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cEducating, learning from our mistakes, needs, should, must, be the bedrock of police conduct investigations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGone are the days of catching and punishing, and that\u2019s a really healthy place for us to get towards. The more work we do, the more we step in that direction, I think the better the wider service will be.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, there are still some with not as enlightened attitudes. There are still bumps in that road. But I personally would welcome any and all steps that we could take towards that better knowledge, that better understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean that misconduct cases should be confined to the archives, however.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese steps are taken fully cognisant of the fact that some mistakes are unfortunately unrecoverable. You can be as repentant as you like, there are some things that the office of constable simply can\u2019t sustain.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Misconduct cases] should be the exception not the rule – it\u2019s a really telling statistic, the number that face a gross misconduct hearing and don\u2019t end up getting dismissed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say that because current policy, current guidance is that we should only really be going to hearings if we think that dismissal is a strong likelihood of being proven. So, the more frequently that doesn\u2019t happen, it should call into question some of the decisions around that.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave we got the balance right locally? My fear, increasingly, is that we haven\u2019t and that we\u2019re still sending too many officers to face panels who inflict the highest sanction, so I\u2019m starting to question more frequently if that\u2019s the right thing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been taking local decisions on misconduct matters forever. It doesn\u2019t mean we always get it right, and I guess that\u2019s the point. We can change the policy, we can change the procedure, but actually we arguably need more of a cultural change in those decision-making positions to get us into this space where we are learning more than we\u2019re prosecuting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOVES to replace pursuing misconduct cases with training, development and personal performance improvements have been billed as a step in the right direction by Essex Police Federation. The PFEW wants\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6780"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6851,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6780\/revisions\/6851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}