2 Police complaints and professional standards
The maintenance of professional standards requires effective mechanisms of regulation and investigation, but the handling of police misconduct claims, by both the police and independent oversight bodies, has also been a subject of concern.
Figure 4: Investigators from the Independent Office for Police Conduct [Description: Rear view of two men walking down a staircase wearing high visibility jackets with ‘IOPC’ logos on their backs.] Source: https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/our-work/investigations
Complaints against the police are initially dealt within forces, each of which has a Professional Standards Department to handle allegations of corruption, complaints and allegations of misconduct and the vetting of officers. Allegations of serious misconduct are considered by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). The IOPC makes investigations independently of the police and the government. It replaced the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) in 2018, after the latter was found to be:
… ‘woefully underequipped’ with ‘neither the powers nor the resources that it need[ed] to get to the truth when the integrity of the police is in doubt’.
But the IOPC, in its own 2022/2023 report, noted that the proportion of the public not confident that the organisation does a good job (34 per cent) was at its highest since testing began (IOPC, 2023, p. 3). A 2023 independent review of the IOPC found problems with the quality and timeliness of its work and recommended its governance structure should be ‘radically reformed’ (Home Office, 2024).
Professional standards more generally are also the responsibility of local police authorities (including Police and Crime Commissioners) and within the remit of His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS). A 2022 HMICFRS report on the capability of police forces effectively to vet and monitor their officers found that standards were not high enough and that it was ‘too easy for the wrong people to both join and stay in the police’. It concluded that there were:
… systemic failings, missed opportunities and a generally inadequate approach to the setting and maintenance of standards in the police service.
While there are a range of regulatory and oversight mechanisms in place to ensure police professional standards, these do not always function as they should. Embedding effective oversight and developing standards has been a work in progress since the advent of the New Police in 1829.
In the following sections, you will learn about the history of police standards and professionalisation, and the relationship of these to today’s problems.