The Independent Police Complaints Commission Who Will Guard The Guardians PDF Download

This report examines how well the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is managing its resources, the adequacy of the IPCC's quality assurance arrangements and how far the IPCC has sought to assess the impact of its work. Complaints against the police of a serious nature requiring IPCC involvement led to it opening 100 independent investigations in 2007-08, compared to 31 in 2004-05. The IPCC also received 4,141 appeals about local police investigations which was a four-fold increase on the number in 2004-05. As a result of its increasing workload, the IPCC has found itself working at above full capacity. The IPCC has no formal quality control framework in place. The IPCC's Commissioners have not been formally approving all investigation reports, one of their key responsibilities. Public confidence in the police complaints system is essential. While the IPCC has commissioned research to look at levels of public confidence in the complaints system, it has not sought the views of complainants, police officers and appellants about their experiences of the IPCC's processes. The absence of feedback from those who have had direct experience of dealing with the IPCC is a significant oversight which the IPCC is now rectifying. There is a lack of clarity about who has responsibility for monitoring the implementation of IPCC recommendations. The IPCC accepts responsibility for recording each police force's acceptance or rejection of the recommendations following an investigation, but not for monitoring the implementation of the recommendations. The IPCC has, therefore, only limited evidence on the impact of its work.