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HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland

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The investigation of complaints against the police in Scotland

7. The "Ninth Police Force"

Complaints affecting national police organisations in Scotland

7.1 This inspection has focused primarily with Scotland's eight territorial police forces operating under the tripartite arrangement involving chief constables, police authorities and Scottish Ministers. HMIC have not examined the British Transport Police, the Ministry of Defence Police, The UK Atomic Energy Authority Police, or the National Criminal Intelligence Service all of which have a presence in Scotland but fall under UK jurisdiction. The complaints procedures for these organisations are governed by UK wide regulations, although allegations of crime fall under the jurisdiction of the procurator fiscal.

7.2 HMIC has however considered briefly the arrangements for investigating allegations affecting those policing institutions which are part of the Scottish Police Service but which are managed under collective arrangements typically involving committees of chief officers, COSLA and Ministers Representatives. Organisations falling into this category include the Scottish Crime Squad, the Scottish Police College, The Scottish Criminal Record Office and the proposed Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency. At the present time there are 174 police officers and 164 force support officers attached to these organisations. In addition there are 6 force support officers attached to the Scottish Police Information Strategy (SPIS) Group. The staffing arrangements are illustrated at Figure 1.

Figure 1

Common Police Services/Collaborative Arrangements - Staffing

figure 1

SPC - Scottish Police College; SCRO - Scottish Criminal Records Office; SCS - Scottish Crime Squad;
SPIS - Scottish Police Information Strategy

Taken together these Common Police Services (CPS) incur expenditure equivalent to a small Scottish force. This is illustrated in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2

Revenue Expenditure - Common Police Services and Small Police Forces 1998

Figure 2

(1) The costs of Common Police Services include SPC, SCRO, SCS, SPIS, contributions to UK services eg NCIS, PNC and other miscellaneous services. Force costs are net grant earning expenditure less property costs (including loan charges).

7.3 These institutions are established under either secondary legislation or agreed protocols and their legal status has thus far largely proved sufficient for them to discharge their primary purpose. For example the Scottish Crime Squad, founded on a collaborative agreement between chief constables, fulfils an effective investigative role. However, because it does not have a separate legal identity from its constituent forces it cannot enter into contracts, own property or employ staff in its own right. Issues of accountability and employment conditions in the Scottish Crime Squad were explored in more detail in a HMIC inspection report on the squad published in 1999. More significantly for the purposes of this report, in common with comparable national police bodies, the Scottish Crime Squad has no complaints procedure of its own and its senior supervising officers have no direct disciplinary powers over crime squad staff. Although senior management within the Scottish Crime Squad collate all complaint allegations made against squad officers, their role under the existing system is to act as a reporting mechanism through which complaints are referred to the deputy chief constable of an officers "home" force that is the parent force of the officer/support staff member subject of the complaint.

7.4 Squad members remain accountable through the eight separate chains of command which link them to their separate forces. Given the squad's mobile national role, and the use of mixed teams of officers selected from a number of forces this can lead to some complex scenarios when complaints are made. The creation of the Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency may accentuate the complexity and scope of such matters. Accordingly, it is likely the complaint arrangements that currently exist for Scottish Crime Squad officers will continue following establishment of the Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency. For example the chief constable of Lothian and Borders Police could receive a complaint concerning a crime squad team made up of officers from Strathclyde, Fife and Central forces engaged in a mobile operation extending between Tayside and the English border. In order to address this type of event conventions have developed in which one force takes a lead role, and if criminal allegations are involved, reports to a single procurator fiscal. If the allegations are of misconduct the situation is more complex. In such cases jurisdiction is retained by the home force of the officers involved and the force leading the investigation copies the final report to the relevant deputy chief constables for them to consider. If individual deputies feel that a misconduct hearing is justified separate hearings will be held in separate forces under separate chairmen. Given the wide range of different approaches to misconduct issues already identified by HMIC this arrangement has the potential to produce contradictory outcomes in which a consistent view of conduct and professional standards may be hard to discern.

7.5 Similar but less complex arrangements exist in non-operational establishments such as the Scottish Police College. Again, while the college, for example, has developed policies of equal opportunities and sexual-harassment, there is no formal internal disciplinary procedure. It has become customary for a member of staff accused of misconduct to be returned to force in order that they can be brought under the jurisdiction of a deputy chief constable with disciplinary powers. Thereafter, the procedure and disposal of the allegation are controlled by the force rather than the college. This means that the director of the Scottish Police College has no formal means of addressing complaint or misconduct issues.

7.6 The service has lived with these arrangements for long enough and no conspicuous disaster has resulted. However, HMIC is aware of some recent enquiries where the multi-force nature of units and the absence of anyone with direct executive authority over the organisation has presented additional difficulties in an already complex situation.

7.7 Although this inspection has not focussed greatly on the use of civil claims there have been some cases which have provided further illustration of confused lines of accountability within the current arrangements. Because most national policing organisations do not have a separate corporate identify they cannot be sued in their own right. Accordingly civil actions resulting from the actions of individual police officers must be taken against the police authority of the home force of the officer concerned. This has led to police authorities facing claims for the acts or omissions of officers operating outside their own police areas, under the command of members of another force whilst undertaking activities about which their chief constable quite properly knew nothing and over which the force had no control.

7.8 Given that elsewhere in this report HMIC has argued for clear lines of responsibility and consistency in dealing with misconduct issues, the current arrangements for investigating complaints in Scotland's national policing organisations can hardly avoid critical mention. Within the existing legislative framework there is little chief constables can do other than seek to achieve some measure of consistency through liaison and co-operation. However HMIC does not consider that the present arrangements for dealing with complaints and misconduct occurring in national police organisations provide a credible means of promoting high professional standards and accountability in the 21st century. Accordingly HMIC recommends that chief constables discuss with the Scottish Executive the need to bring Scotland's national policing organisations within a statutory framework which provides for clearer lines of accountability in matters of professional conduct. The current review of Scotland's policing structure may provide an opportunity to take this issue forward.

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