Recommendations - Metropolitan Police Service, June 2020

Metropolitan Police Service · Ref: 2018/113219

Recommendation date: 5 June 2020

Response due: 31 July 2020

Published: 5 November 2020

Death and serious injury

In May 2018, Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) officers in unmarked police vehicles, conducted an intelligence led stop on a taxi. During this incident, a man decamped from the taxi and came into contact with an unmarked police vehicle. The individual was seriously injured. Following the referral of this incident to the IOPC, concerns were identified about the conduct of an officer from the Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS). This referenced a failure to secure and disclose evidence to the IOPC. Of the officer's cases, a dip sample of six was undertaken by the MPS. Issues were identified in all of them.

View on IOPC website

Recommendations (6)

Recommendation 1 Accepted

Recommendation

The IOPC recommends that the MPS Should consider providing role specific training to all of its professional standards investigators. It is recommended that this training addresses the following requirements: Another issue raised in this investigation was the lack of role … Read more

Force Response

Accepted action: In order to provide formal training to DPS investigators in this area, over the last 12-18 months the DPS have invested in training with the College of Policing and have sent investigators on the PSD Investigators’ Course. However, … Read more

Recommendation 2 Accepted

Recommendation

The MPS should treat daybooks as controlled stationery across the whole force. Recognising that they contain relevant material to criminal, conduct and Death or Serious Injury investigations the movements and continuity of these books should be audited, and they should … Read more

Force Response

Accepted action: The MPS Records Management Retention, Review and Disposal Policy, published in 2018, provides retention and timescales for both paper and related digital records. The policy is currently being updated to include Death and Serious Injury (DSI) investigations as … Read more

Recommendation 3 Accepted

Recommendation

The MPS should amend their Death and Serious Injury (DSI) investigation report template to specifically reference the three following questions: The MPS reviews of a Detective Constable's (DC) reports suggested that the template used in Directorate of Professional Standards was … Read more

Force Response

Accepted action: The current DPS DSI report template (v.3) already incorporates the three questions set out, and therefore the meets this recommendation. In relation to the specific points in the learning recommendation, these are all addressed clearly in the template … Read more

Recommendation 4 Accepted

Recommendation

The IOPC recommends the MPS should create a role profile for Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) investigators and DPS IOPC Single Point of Contacts (SPoC), outlining the requirements of the role and the role holder’s key responsibilities. The MPS should … Read more

Force Response

Accepted action: When the SIU was formed, a Terms of Reference and operating principles for the unit and role profiles for each of the roles was produced. A guidance document was also circulated to all SIU investigators. These have been … Read more

Recommendation 5 Accepted

Recommendation

The IOPC recommends that the MPS should consider putting policy in place that outlines the minimum standards required in Death and Serious Injury (DSI), complaint and conduct investigations. This policy should address the following requirements: There was a lack of … Read more

Force Response

Accepted action: Other guidance has been highlighted and provides a strong framework which we are ensuring is followed through training. The MPS investigators are led by the statutory framework for professional standards, namely the Police Reform Act 2002, the IOPC … Read moreAccepted action: Other guidance has been highlighted and provides a strong framework which we are ensuring is followed through training. The MPS investigators are led by the statutory framework for professional standards, namely the Police Reform Act 2002, the IOPC Statutory Guidance 2020, Police (Complaints and Misconduct Regulations) 2020, Police (Conduct) Regulations 2020, Police (Performance) Regulations 2020, Home Office Guidance on Conduct, Efficiency & Effectiveness 2020, and more recently, College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice for DSI (July 2020), which we consulted on to achieve its completion. In addition, the DSI template contains sufficient information to support the investigator through the investigation process. We have provided the following explanation as to how the template covers each of the points mentioned therefore negating the necessity of a separate policy. The template addresses this in Section 3 (within the guidance notes). Additionally, the Performance Inspector role monitors and scrutinises compliance (on Centurion) and holds investigators to account through dip sampling. The DSI template addresses this in Sections 5 and 6. Section 5 was introduced in order to replicate the IOPC report structure. The guidance notes in red also help to guide the author as to what is required in each section. The analysis aims to examine and discuss officers’ conduct, with regard to policy, legislation, etc. in order to establish if they have followed process correctly. The Conduct Matter template is currently being updated to reflect these changes with a view to being operational by October 2020. This is addressed in the DSI report in Section 4 – summary of evidence. The black text (replicating what is often seen in IOPC reports) should remain, the red text is guidance notes only, for removal on completion of the report. The investigator is guided to review all material, decide what is relevant to address the terms of reference and provide accurate summaries of that evidence. All material examined, whether referred to or not, must be listed in the appendices and be made available for inspection. This principle of summarising evidence applies to all types of evidence and is not limited to video evidence. This is addressed in the DSI report template at Section 2 – Terms of Reference (ToR). The guidance notes in red should assist investigators not only in composing ToR, but also directs them to where they can find the IOPC Guidance on how to draft them. Some are standard, in order to comply with requirements, for example, the necessity to identify any organisational learning and establish if any officer has committed a criminal offence or behaved in a manner justifying the bringing of disciplinary proceedings. The report, including ToR, is subject to supervision. ToR must be uploaded on to Centurion, which is also supervised and monitored by the internal performance process conducted by the Performance Inspector as part of the dip sampling process. In addition to this, the new Regulations have made the provision of ToR to a subject officer in complaints and conduct matters (including DSIs where conduct is indicated) as a legislative requirement. DPS now have a new document provided to subject officers which incorporates a Regulation Notice and ToR. In addition, as part of the new performance regime, a supervisor review process has been introduced. This includes checking ToR and ensuring they are present and sufficient. The reviews are to be conducted at 28 days by the immediate line manager, at 150 days by the Detective Inspector and at 180 days by the Detective Chief Inspector. This is addressed in the DSI report at Section 3 – Interested Persons / People Involved. The guidance notes, and reference to the IOPC Statutory Guidance explain this. Centurion is used by all investigators within the DPS. At the time of the initiation of Op Glen, DPS - SI officers predominantly used CRIS to document DSI investigations, but its use was deemed inconsistent and used in such a way that it could not be searched or monitored. This is now being addressed by changing previous CRIS reports from Confidential to Restricted, to allow them to be searched and accessed. DPS SLT are confident that the consistent use of Centurion allows decision making to be properly recorded for all investigations. The need to answer the following questions in DSI investigations: In response to the above three questions, we believe our previous responses to recommendations 005 and 007 satisfy these points. Show less

Recommendation 6 Accepted

Recommendation

The IOPC recommends the MPS should conduct a review of the staffing levels at the Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) to satisfy themselves that they are adequate to meet the needs of that department. This report makes repeated reference to … Read more

Force Response

Accepted action: Following a recent restructure of the Specialist Investigation portfolio, the resourcing of this area of DPS was reviewed and it has been concluded that the current Budgeted Workforce Target (BWT) is sufficient to meet the current demands of … Read more