More funding call as police complaints up

The Police watchdog is calling on the Government for more funding as the level of complaints increases.

In a report to Parliament, published last week, the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) said that since January 2019, the Authority had sustained a 30 per cent step-increase in complaint volume, and presently did not have sufficient capacity and resources to manage the increasing complaint volume.

The Authority initially reported its ‘‘worsening volume pressure position and corresponding deterioration of performance’’ to the Justice Minister Andrew Little in its 2019-2020 Annual Report and other quarterly reports.

As a result, Little gave the authority a one-off $400,000 at the end of last year, to manage its workload, with the promise to consider more in Budget 2020.

But IPCA chairman Judge Colin Doherty said the authority was still overloaded. The funding boost was used to hire staff to assist with the assessment and triage of complaints.

The jump in complaints was a result of a disconnect between what police were receiving and what was being notified to the IPCA, he said.

He believed this ‘step increase’ could also be related to more public awareness about the authority and more police on the front line.

The authority had made a ‘‘comprehensive’’ budget package bid that was not confined to just the immediate staffing problem, he said.

More staff would mean larger structures and support processes around that, he said.

The report to Parliament states that the IPCA was now also working with the Ministry of Justice on an independent review of all of its core functions, in order both to ensure that it was operating as efficiently and effectively as possible and to identify areas for improvement.

The draft terms of reference were currently being written and once agreed, the Ministry would start a procurement process to begin to find a provider to complete the review.

In the meantime, staff positions were being carefully managed based on available resource, so the IPCA could ensure ongoing financial sustainability, the report says.

‘‘This is a challenge, since the Board must weigh the need to ensure that cash reserves remain at a minimum financially prudent level against the need to secure personnel to better manage the current backlog.’’

The IPCA had partly managed by employing a greater number of fixed term contract staff than it would like, the report said.