Final Report of the Morris Inquiry: The Case for Change

PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS
7.74 The HR directorate will be involved in the case conference as it will have
responsibility for welfare issues as well as assisting the officer’s re-entry into the
workplace if that is the outcome once the matter is concluded. The Assistant
Commissioner will have to justify his or her decision in writing and the decision,
and the reasons for it, will also appear in the policy file.
7.75 The clock will start when the investigation actually commences, even if it
begins covertly. The MPA’s consideration of the case will begin after 90 days unless
the investigation is still covert.
7.76 In covert investigations, there is already provision for review of surveillance
authorities. This will obviously continue but the officer conducting that review will
also be responsible for considering progress and whether the investigation should
continue. His or her decisions should be recorded in the decision log.
7.77 After a covert investigation has run for three months, a chief officer from
another force should review the case and he or she will have the delegated
authority to stop the investigation if deemed appropriate. Such reviews should
continue as and when necessary.
7.78 Once a decision has been taken to prefer disciplinary charges, a disciplinary
panel should be convened within 30 days. Once appointed, the chair of the panel
should convene a meeting with all parties, along the lines of a pre-trial review, to
ensure issues which might delay matters are identified and addressed. Cases which
have not been disposed of within 90 days of the decision to prefer charges should
again be subject to monitoring by the MPA.
7.79 We consider that this model, properly applied, should assist the MPS in its
management of cases and address many of the problems we have been made aware of.
7.80 We also believe that it might be of assistance to other police services and
would therefore commend it to the Home Office, the IPCC, the APA and the ACPO
Professional Standards Committee for national guidance.
7.81 Critics may say that the MPS’ complaints caseload would make this approach
too unwieldy to administer. However, if cases which are suitable for early resolution
are identified at an early stage (as they should be and as is done in other police
services, such as Merseyside Police Service) we consider that there is no reason why
the model we are recommending should not succeed.
We recommend that the MPS and the Metropolitan Police Authority adopt
our recommended model of case management.
We also recommend that the Home Office, the Independent Police Complaints
Commission, the Association of Police Authorities and the Association of Chief
Police Officers’ Professional Standards Committee consider the introduction of a
national model.
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