5 May 2014
James Berry provided evidence to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee on Police and Crime Commissioners’ (PCCs’) powers to suspend and remove Chief Constables and the role of Police and Crime Panels in scrutinising PCCs. His submission can be found here [insert link to attached document].
James’ evidence was quoted in the Home Affairs Committee’s Report “Police and Crime Commissioners: progress to date” which can be found here.
A search warrant application before the magistrates’ court can take a matter of minutes; the search itself a matter of hours. But when a claim is brought against the police for the way in which a warrant was obtained or executed, the consequence can be long, drawn out and costly litigation. Police forces risk paying out compensation for trespass to property, breach of Article 8 and malicious procurement of a search warrant.
The Government is considering proposals to open police misconduct hearings to the public. Presently the usual rule is that police misconduct hearings are held in private, pursuant to regulation 32 of the Police (Conduct) Regulations 2008.
The IPCC has launched a consultation on the way it investigates deaths during and after contact with police. The IPCC is consulting on a number of issues including how the IPCC investigates:
Section 23 of the Police Act 1996 provides for chief officers of 2 or more police forces to make arrangements to discharge their police functions jointly where it appears to the chief offices that those functions can be discharged more efficiently or effectively on a joint basis.
On 1 October 2012 the National Police Air Service was launched, in what is understood to be the first use of s.23 of Police Act 1996 to underpin national collaboration arrangement. Until October, air support was delivered locally by 30 Police Air Support Units. By the time NPAS is implemented in full in January 2015, it will provide for a unified air service comprising 25 aircraft based at 23 strategic locations. ACPO anticipates that this move will generate a saving of up to £15 million per year. See: http://www.acpo.presscentre.com/Press-Releases/National-Police-Air-Service-is-launched-1a8.aspx