1 week Ago By Editorial
Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Belfast News Letter, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. In a piece discussing the findings of our investigation in respect of the PSNI investigation into the death of Katie Simpson, your editorial ( ‘ A fundamental PSNI failure over Simpson murder,’ Wednesday November 13 ) began with the following statement: “ The police are so heavily scrutinised by the police ombudsman's office that it can seem they are held to an impossible standard. In the last year alone more than 200 officers received discipline or performance action.
Advertisement Advertisement “At that pace within a decade a very high proportion of the PSNI, a police force under immense pressure, will have findings against them .” There is a clear inference that the Police Ombudsman is somehow over-zealous in investigating police, when, in fact, all (qualifying) complaints about the police must be investigated by this Office. This is a requirement under the law, not a discretionary function.
We receive more than 3,000 complaints a year. The vast majority of these are made by members of the public, as they were by those who were concerned about how the police initially investigated the death of Katie Simpson. Is the suggestion that we should not investigate these complaints? Our core remit is to hold police to account, and by doing so to identify improvements in policing policy and practice, as we did with the recommendations made to the PSNI as part of our investigation into the handling of Katie’s death.
Advertisement Advertisement It is how lessons are learned, and the net impact should be to improve, not undermine, confidence in policing. We approach each complaint with an open mind, assessing the available evidence and drawing conclusions based on that evidence, independently and free from any police, governmental or sectional community interest. Of the thousands of complaints we receive, around 43% require a full investigation.
And, of these, around 10% each year are substantiated. This shows that in the majority of complaints, there is no case to answer, and indeed, we often highlight and commend good policing. However, if we identify misconduct, we will make recommendations for disciplinary action to the PSNI.
And when police criminality is alleged, we will comply with our obligation to submit evidence to the Public Prosecution Service so that it can determine whether prosecution should result. Bear in mind that it is the PSNI, and not the Police Ombudsman, which makes the decision about whether an officer has breached the police Code of Ethics and what level of sanction should be imposed. Police officers are not, therefore, ‘held to an impossible standard’.
They are held to account against their own Code of Ethics. To suggest otherwise does a disservice to those who make complaints, to our staff who diligently investigate those complaints, to the majority of ethical police officers, and, in the case of Katie Simpson, to her family. Hugh Hume, Chief Executive, Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland.
