You are here: > Home > News Releases and Speeches > 'Reassured but not complacent' - HMIC review of police integrity

Thu 23 February 2012 03:08 GMT,

'Reassured but not complacent' - HMIC review of police integrity

 

Following the publication of the Independent Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC)’s report into Police Relationships and Integrity ‘Without fear or favour’ today, 13.12.11, Cllr Mark Burns-Williamson, Chair of the Association of Police Authorities has commented:

"The public can be reassured that the Inspectorate's thorough investigation has not found evidence of endemic failings in police integrity. But police authorities agree with HMIC that the police service and those who oversee them cannot afford to be complacent. Across a range of issues which could cause concern, the public will expect common sense to prevail and clear standards to be enforced with consistency.

We will work hard to implement the inspectorate's recommendations as quickly as possible and share best practice so that the public's overwhelming confidence in the police will deepen, not diminish in the future.

Looking ahead, HMIC is right to insist that it’s essential that those who are elected to police the police are held to account as consistently as those they oversee if public trust in the service is to be maintained." ENDS

 

Note: 

This comment is issued in response to the release today, 13.12.11 of a report into police relationships and integrity commissioned by the Home Secretary from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC): http://www.hmic.gov.uk/inspections/review-police-service-integrity/

Notes to Editors

  1. Press contact: Nathan Oley, Head of Press and Public Affairs, 07714 399 760 / Nathan.oley@apa.police.uk
  2. The Association of Police Authorities (APA) represents all police authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as the British Transport Police Authority, the Civil Nuclear Police Authority, and the Ministry of Defence Police Committee.
  3. Local police authorities, along with the Home Secretary and chief officers of police, make up the tripartite relationship which is responsible for the governance of policing in England and Wales.
  4. Police authorities are currently made up of local people: a mix of local councillors and independent members (selected from the community) of which one must be a magistrate.
  5. The tripartite partners are the Home Office, the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Association of Police Authorities.
  6. The job of police authorities is to:
    • Consult with local communities to find out what they want the local police to do
    • Set the strategic direction for policing locally and decide what the police should focus their attention on locally, based on consultations with local communities
    • Set the budget for their police force, and decide how much local people should pay for policing in the local council tax
    • Make sure the police force is continuing to do a better job
    • Appoint (and, if necessary, dismiss) chief constables and senior police officers

Your Police Authority

More

What is a Police Authority?

What is a Police Authority?