Two police officers have recently been dismissed from the Police Service of Northern Ireland over behaviours that were “abhorrent and completely dismissive of any respect towards colleagues in the workplace”, the Chief Constable has said.
Jon Boutcher made the revelation as he described how his police service is “demonstrating very clearly a no-tolerance approach to any misconduct or inappropriate behaviours”.
The chief constable made the comments while responding to a question at the Northern Ireland Policing Board by Alliance MLA Nuala McAllister in terms of what further work can be done on addressing violence against women and girls.
Boutcher said the PSNI’s plan has been set out through the Langdale Review and the Melia Report which identified failings in the investigation into the murder of Katie Simpson.
“That gives us a number of recommendations, but at the last board (meeting), we talked about a whole systems approach to this,” he said.
“We’re in discussions around making sure that approach to our response against violence against women and children is adopted with that more strategic overview.”
Boutcher said within the PSNI they are “demonstrating very clearly a no tolerance approach to any misconduct or inappropriate behaviours”.
“We are a reflection of society. We all know, and I’ve heard members of this board talk about the challenges of addressing violence against women and girls in society more generally, I would say that this organisation, I think more than any other that I am aware of, is currently really addressing this issue with how we deal with people who show any of those sorts of behaviours,” he said.
“Only on Friday of last week I dismissed three further officers, two for behaviours that were abhorrent and completely dismissive of any respect towards colleagues in the workplace.
“So we have got to live and breathe this, not just have strategies and policies. We’ve got to make sure that everyone in the organisation understands the importance of it.”
McAllister also questioned the dismissal rate for officers attending a misconduct or special case hearing rising from 54 per cent to 79 per cent in the last year, whether that was because of working harder or more issues to deal with.
Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton responded saying they have been careful not to create targets in this area, adding that the right outcome from a misconduct hearing “is a just one, not necessarily a dismissal”.
“But having said that, I do think if anything the increase in the dismissal rate is probably a reflection of an improved understanding and assessment of the proportionality of the misconduct that we’re dealing with,” he said.
“So when we’re sending people to either special case hearings, it really should be the cases where we think dismissal may be an appropriate outcome from that.
“I’d be more concerned if I’ve seen really low rates of dismissal, and that would raise questions for me as to whether we were getting our assessment right.”
He added: “We are working the chief (constable) very, very hard at the moment, he did three special case hearings just in the last fortnight alone, and we have definitely taken a fresh approach to that, and have challenged ourselves.
“Where we can see evidence within a misconduct case now that is incontrovertible, we will put it in front of the chief at the earliest opportunity, because we absolutely recognise the drain that this is having, not just on public confidence, but even internally, in terms of confidence that our own officers and staff have in our misconduct regime.”
He said there was also an increase in the number of misconduct investigations, “down to greater levels of reporting and awareness”, and more confidential reports.
However, he said the levels of reporting around inappropriate behaviour “are absolutely inadequate”, and added while things are getting gradually better, there is a “great deal of work still to do”.
