Police in abuse allegations let off the hook, says watchdog’s report

POLICE officers accused of domestic abuse offences including rape, coercive control and grevious bodily harm have avoided misconduct investigations and were allowed to continue serving, a report has found.

A review of how forces handle domestic abuse complaints against their own officers found that just four in 10 face any form of disciplinary action.

Watchdogs identified numerous “systematic deficiencies” in the way forces dealt with complaints, including allowing cases to be investigated by colleagues and friends of those accused.

Inspectors also found examples of cases being closed prematurely or not being investigated thoroughly, which they warned was leading to a loss of confidence among victims.

The detailed review was commissioned following a “super-complaint” brought by the Centre for Womens’ Justice (CWJ), which argued that a lockerroom culture in policing had led to forces turning a blind eye to domestic abuse perpetrated by male officers on their wives and partners.

The joint investigation, which was carried out by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the College of Policing and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services, concluded that the police response to alleged domestic abuse within its own ranks was “significantly harming the interests of the public”.

The report authors also warned that there was a “substantial risk to public trust and confidence in policing if police workforce members accused of crime are not robustly investigated”.

Just 9 per cent of domestic abuse complaints against officers resulted in a criminal charge, compared with 11 per cent in the wider population.

However, inspectors found that even when the most serious allegations were made against serving officers, the matter was not always referred for a misconduct investigation.

In a sample of cases from 15 police forces in 2018, the report authors found four allegations of rape, four of coercive control and one of grevious bodily harm that had not been treated as conduct or complaint issues.

Inspectors found forces sometimes failed to launch misconduct proceedings because no criminal charges had been brought or because the victim did not wish to engage with the force’s professional standards departments.

It was found that victims subsequently lacked confidence in the impartiality of the police and were therefore discouraged in coming forward to report offences.

In some cases where misconduct action was taken, forces placed too much emphasis on the fact that abuse took place when the officer was off duty.

The report warned: “The failure to achieve appropriate criminal and disciplinary sanctions in police perpetrated domestic abuse cases can create a profound and sometimes intractable loss of confidence in the police.”

The CWJ had demanded that all allegations of domestic abuse made against a serving police officer should be investigated by an outside force. However, the report instead urged all cases be investigated by someone with no prior connection to any of those involved.