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IOPC: Nearly 200 ex-police work at ‘independent’ police watchdog [1]

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Date: 2023-07

Nearly 200 former police officers and staff members now work at the independent watchdog that is supposed to monitor their old forces, data seen by openDemocracy reveals.

The majority of the 192 ex-police officers and ‘civilians’ – meaning other non-frontline police workers – are concentrated in the operations teams that handles investigations into alleged police misconduct and has the power to recommend sanctions.

According to the IOPC’s most recent staff diversity report, a quarter of staff (136 out of 544) in the IOPC’s two operations divisions previously held roles in the police force, either as officers or police civilians. One of the divisions was tasked with investigating the actions of police in the wake of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.

The IOPC had a total staff of 1,069 as of 31 March 2023, meaning ex-police make up 18% of the workforce – a slight fall from the 22% recorded in 2010, although overall numbers are significantly higher today.

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It will add to misgivings about the effectiveness of the watchdog, whose investigations last year resulted in 68 misconduct proceedings being launched against police officers – out of a total 71,967 complaints, according to the IOPC’s own statistics.

Marcia Rigg, whose brother Sean Rigg died in Brixton police station in August 2008 after prolonged restraint by Metropolitan Police officers while in the midst of a mental health crisis, said she was “fuming” at the number of ex-police officers working in the IOPC.

Ex-police officers playing a role in investigating her brother’s case was a key issue for Rigg as she went up against the watchdog, then called the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). The IPCC became the IOPC in 2018 following changes to the Policing and Crime Act 2017.

The officers involved in her brother’s death were accused of failing to spot the signs that the musician was dealing with poor mental health and treating him accordingly. They were also alleged to have used excessive force when restraining him, and giving false evidence to the IPCC.

Rigg believes the police watchdog failed to interview officers quickly enough while the incident was still fresh in their minds. First accounts from the officers were not taken until six months after her brother’s death. She told openDemocracy that this had led to a failure within the IPCC’s initial investigation to get an understanding of the circumstances leading to the 40-year-old’s death. She also believes this delay in interviews left police officers with time to collude and get their stories straight, something they denied.

At a misconduct hearing in 2019, more than a decade after Sean died, four out of the five officers involved were accused of lying about what had happened in order to mask their behaviour to the IOPC. All five officers were cleared.

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[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/iopc-police-officers-civilians-revolving-door-192-ex-staff/

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