Call for better probes into police corruption
ONLY a fraction of corruption complaints against police officers are independently investigated.
Figures released by the Independent Police Complaints Commission show the overwhelming majority of allegations never see the light of day.
And in a shock admission, the IPCC has admitted nobody really knows the true extent of the problem because there is still no uniform definition of "corruption".
Kent Police received 204 complaints of corruption between 2008 and 2011, yet only 12 – six per cent – were assessed by the IPCC.
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Of those, just three cases were handled with IPCC involvement – less than two per cent.
The rest were handed back to be investigated internally by the force itself after the IPCC deemed they were not serious enough to justify its time.
Kent Police has defended its record, insisting complaints were investigated in line with the IPCC's guidelines.
Det Insp Dean Edwards said: "We are committed to minimising the risk through intelligence, prevention and detection.
"It is mandatory to refer cases where the allegation is considered to be serious corruption."
He added the force has a policy of referring all cases "where the allegation is considered to be serious corruption."
The IPCC released figures for all forces in England and Wales with a total of 8,542 allegations made, 837 of which were referred to the IPCC.
IPCC spokesman Sarah Read said: "No-one really knows how many cases of corruption there are, that's why we're saying more needs to be done.
"You can't really draw any conclusions from this because of the way different forces record the data."
Comments
by Donalds
Wednesday, June 06 2012, 7:22PM
“Routine ongoing polygraphs for all current police officers to help fight and prevent misconduct and corruption. http://tinyurl.com/brecz6m”