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Analysis of Police Accountability System and Its Maintenance

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Words: 1479 |

Pages: 3|

8 min read

Published: Apr 17, 2023

Words: 1479|Pages: 3|8 min read

Published: Apr 17, 2023

Where there is an existence of crime, many areas of the criminal justice system are involved in resolving the outcome. A key point of concern is police accountability, the essay defines whether the justice system is able to be held responsible and answerable for deviations from its goals and values when resolving such affairs, a matter of accountability. When investigating highly controversial issues and events, it is relevant to question the accounts of truth, if it is possible for there to be a final definitive version of the truth or when faced with conflicting accounts, who's account is to be believed. When the policing systems are inadequate towards the circumstance, it is vital to be able to differentiate between organisational and individual accountability and ways it can be countered.

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The most current system for police complaints is the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) established in 2018 from the Policing and Crime Act, which had replaced the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) which was established in 2004 from the Police Reform Act in 2002. The IPCC originated from the wide calls for change amongst the system including the Macpherson inquiry into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence and the overall questioning of the police service itself. Before the introduction of the IPCC, the first police complaints system was the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) but the system struggled to achieve any sort of credibility, to counter this, the IPCC and IOPC place strong emphasis on their independence due to the fact that they are not a component of any government department and completely independent from the police service. Features of the IPCC and IOPC include the fact they can both independently investigate, manage or supervise investigations into all deaths following police contact and other serious allegations and the investigators involved have all the powers of a police constable. The duty of these organisations is to improve the police's handling of complaints, improve the confidence in the system and ultimately determine where responsibilities lay within the system.

Surrounding the police departments themselves and their ability to cause fatality, by law and policy it is an individual police officer's responsibility to decide whether to shoot or not and by the Criminal Law Act 'A person may use such force as is reasonable in the prevention of crime'. In the case of Jean Charles de Menezes (JCDM) and his fatal shooting on 22 July 2005 this was not the circumstance. In response to 4 previous suicide bomb attacks and a further 4 failed attempts of attack the police developed tactics for special circumstances including a system named Operation Kratos, this operation enables the police to fire with no warning with the intent to incapacitate the target. According to this operation, instead of an individual officer's decision, the decision to shoot relies on the command of the designated senior officer, in this case, Cressida Dick. The police identify one of the bombers as Hussain Osman and choose to stake out his address and question residents. The surveillance team arrive before the firearms team and there are not enough officers to question everyone, JCDM leaves the occupancy without being identified as a possible suspect. Surveillance officers spot JCDM and identify him as matching Osman's description and follow him onto a bus, JCDM leaves the bus to go to the tube station which is closed so proceeds to get back on the bus however his movement is interpreted as an act of anti-surveillance and officers are persuaded he is the suspect. Once at the tube station, Cressida Dick declares 'stop him' to the surveillance officers who ask what to do, as designated senior officer with the command to shoot this comment is extremely ambiguous in the circumstance. JCDM gets onto the tube and is surrounded by officers, firearms teams arrive in the tube station and approach JCDM, he gets up to leave the tube unaware of the situation but is pushed back down by force and subsequently shot at 11 times to the head with 8 shots hitting him. After the attack, public witnesses are kept to be interviewed and a member of the public provides the account where he interpreted 3 firearms officers running through the station to instead be 2 firearms officers chasing a target and this broadcast and thereafter taken as fact Scotland Yard. The head of Scotland Yard gives an interview, repeating as fact the account given on TV, therefore releasing entirely inaccurate information to the public and press. The case was not conducted orderly but was a result of panic and pandemonium.

As a result from this, the head of home office asks the IPCC not to investigate the case however the IPCC attempts to fight back for control, and this delay in referral of the case for investigation creates a suspicion. The IPCC was not effective for this case, only recently established in 2004, the system had only been set up for a year and was new and inexperienced and when faced with conflicting accounts from officers, officers delaying to collaborate their notes and inaccurate information being presented to them by the Metropolitan Police Station, there were many features making it a challenging investigation which ultimately caused the IPCC to come to no conclusion of responsibility.

In instances where police are armed and make potentially fatal mistakes, public confidence in these authorities can be seriously undermined. Structures that help ensure accountability involve procedures such as reviews which is what Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) intends to do. In the public interest, HMIC provides independent assessments of the effectiveness and efficiency of police forces, interpreting the evidence to make recommendations for improvement based on questions they believe the public want answering. They assess the Police Effectiveness, Efficiency and Legitimacy (PEEL) of all 43 police forces in and Wales by drawing together evidence from annual all force inspections, for example rising themes from the 20182019 report praised the use of digital technology to achieve faster responses and increased knowledge and awareness of protecting people with mental health but also picked up on some forces having in-experienced and under-qualified officers investigating high volume crimes without appropriate supervision which was a matter of concern. Further to this, in 1951 the establishment of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) followed by the Human Rights Act generally provided a very strong legal framework for authorities which would make them accountable and responsible for their actions on occasion where authorities have breached rights. The IPCC also takes into account the Human Rights Act when investigating into complaints of misconduct among the police. The HMIC and ECHR provide a brief guidance for authorities conduct.

The HMIC supplies advice to the home secretary, the police authorities and the police forces, and these three components make up part of a tripartite system of accountability for the 43 forces in due course from The Police Act. The system allocates responsibility between the home office, the police authority, and the chief constable, providing accountability through the local police authorities to local populations and also to parliament through the home office. Endorsing this tripartite system are later legislations such as the more recent 2002 Police Reform Act. The inclusion of a hierarchal ranking structure provides an organisational accountability which is directed to give a controlled service, this accountability is an aspect of being able to distinguish between 'organisational and individual dimensions of accountability' including the 'direction and control of organisational policing policies concerned with overall priorities'.

Police accountability is addressed by a wide range of agencies, however it is still argued that some of the key components of the system are not truly independent which in turn undermines accountability. Up until the establishment of the IPCC and IOPC, police investigations were carried out by the police themselves, only changed with the introduction of the IPCC to allow independent investigation. Similarly, surrounding HMIC, in operation HMIC has previously conducted within limits bound by the home office or home secretary which does not aid to reduce criticism surrounding the issues of accountability, up until the appointment of Lay inspectors, it was only from the ranks of senior police officers in which inspectors were specially recruited. Human Rights matters also continue to be challenged and arise discomfort within the public surrounding diverse issues through issues such as unlawful circumstances where a member of the public has been shot by a police officer much to the like of JCDM and also the investigation into the fatalities during or following Police Custody which over the last 10 years varies from 14-23 deaths per year.

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The most effective approach authorities could adopt when under pressure is the ability to remain open to points of scrutiny and criticism and to also be accessible to the public. By maintaining a relationship with the public it will ultimately result in stronger community policing which will be able to retain respect.

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Dr. Oliver Johnson

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Analysis of Police Accountability System and Its Maintenance. (2023, April 17). GradesFixer. Retrieved March 28, 2024, from https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/analysis-of-police-accountability-system-and-its-maintenance/
“Analysis of Police Accountability System and Its Maintenance.” GradesFixer, 17 Apr. 2023, gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/analysis-of-police-accountability-system-and-its-maintenance/
Analysis of Police Accountability System and Its Maintenance. [online]. Available at: <https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/analysis-of-police-accountability-system-and-its-maintenance/> [Accessed 28 Mar. 2024].
Analysis of Police Accountability System and Its Maintenance [Internet]. GradesFixer. 2023 Apr 17 [cited 2024 Mar 28]. Available from: https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/analysis-of-police-accountability-system-and-its-maintenance/
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