Sir Dennis，他山之玉｜戴啟思
蘋果日報 2019/09/08 13:00
專欄人物
An Inspectorate of Police-A Solution to Police Accountability
On Wednesday the Chief Executive announced that she was beefing up the Independent Police Complaints Commission ("IPCC".) She announced that the IPCC would be bringing in several overseas experts who would help the Commission with its work.
The question of whether the IPCC is the right body to investigate and report on allegations of police misconduct is one which continues to divide public opinion. I have my views on the matter which I have expressed before, but I do not want to repeat them.
Instead, I want to explore another possibility for making sure that policing methods are broadly acceptable to the community at large and yet also meet operational requirements.
I see that one of the appointees is Sir Denis O'Connor from the United Kingdom.
Sir Denis was a policeman. He began as a police constable in 1968 and retired as Chief Constable of Surrey in 2004. He had a distinguished police career, but it is what he has done after he ceased to be a policeman that is noteworthy for present purposes.
He became one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Constabulary ("HMIC"), becoming the Chief Inspector in 2009 and retiring from that post in 2012.
HMIC's have been overseeing, inspecting and reporting on police forces for about 150 years. They are independent public officers, neither police officers nor civil servants. There are currently six inspectors, including the Chief Inspector and their responsibilities have been extended to oversight of the Fire and Rescue Services as well. (An Inspector's full title is' Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services'.)
The authority of HMIC's comes from statute, the Police Act 1996. Part II of that Act sets out establishes the relationship between the central government and regional police forces. It requires objectives to be met for police forces and the setting of targets. The task of HMIC's is to 'report to the Secretary of State on the efficiency and effectiveness of, every police force maintained for a police area'.
They may also to undertake further duties as directed to advance police efficiency and effectiveness. The Inspectors produce annual reports for the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State may only redact these reports when full publication would not be in the interests of national security, or it might jeopardise a person's safety.
There were widespread disturbances in London and other English cities in August 2011. They involved arson, looting, rioting and several fatalities. The Secretary of State asked HMIC to report on aspects of the policing within a few days of the events. A comprehensive report on police tactics and police preparedness for the disturbances was published the following December, just over four months later.
The report-entitled ' The rules of engagement: A review of the August 2011 disorders'-was over a hundred pages long. It reviewed police tactics and police preparedness. It found that there was a need for the police to be "better prepared, trained and ready to protect the public if they are to improve upon their response to public disorder." It included a Q.C.'s opinion on the use of force by police officers in some factual scenarios that would commonly occur in public disturbances. The advice suggested what force would, and would not be, lawful in each situation.
The report was written when Sir Denis O'Connor was the Chief Inspector. That was something that probably influenced his appointment. I hope that he can produce something similar within the institutional framework of the IPCC, which is not, it needs emphasising, anything like HMIC.
The recent disturbances appear to make a good case for establishing an oversight body for our Police Force. At present, the Police Force Ordinance is surprisingly light on the issue of oversight. Section 4 of the ordinance says:
"The Commissioner, subject to the orders and control of the Chief Executive, shall be charged with the supreme direction and administration of the police force."
That is an awful lot of power and responsibility to compress in a sentence of fewer than 30 words, with the Chief Executive, surprisingly, having the last word on all policing matters.
The colonial policing model may have been good enough for colonial times. However, as recent events have shown, in this century, people expect police officers to be accountable for the exercise of their considerable police powers.
The IPCC exists to ensure accountability in individual cases where an individual believes police officers have overstepped the mark. However, many people believe police procedures and protocols are failing both the general public and the police force as well. They want oversight. They would rather see regular inspections of the Police Force and all aspects of policing rather than have postmortems into what went wrong on a particular day or days.
The question of whether the IPCC is the right body to investigate and report on allegations of police misconduct is one which continues to divide public opinion. I have my views on the matter which I have expressed before, but I do not want to repeat them.
Instead, I want to explore another possibility for making sure that policing methods are broadly acceptable to the community at large and yet also meet operational requirements.
I see that one of the appointees is Sir Denis O'Connor from the United Kingdom.
Sir Denis was a policeman. He began as a police constable in 1968 and retired as Chief Constable of Surrey in 2004. He had a distinguished police career, but it is what he has done after he ceased to be a policeman that is noteworthy for present purposes.
He became one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Constabulary ("HMIC"), becoming the Chief Inspector in 2009 and retiring from that post in 2012.
HMIC's have been overseeing, inspecting and reporting on police forces for about 150 years. They are independent public officers, neither police officers nor civil servants. There are currently six inspectors, including the Chief Inspector and their responsibilities have been extended to oversight of the Fire and Rescue Services as well. (An Inspector's full title is' Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services'.)
The authority of HMIC's comes from statute, the Police Act 1996. Part II of that Act sets out establishes the relationship between the central government and regional police forces. It requires objectives to be met for police forces and the setting of targets. The task of HMIC's is to 'report to the Secretary of State on the efficiency and effectiveness of, every police force maintained for a police area'.
They may also to undertake further duties as directed to advance police efficiency and effectiveness. The Inspectors produce annual reports for the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State may only redact these reports when full publication would not be in the interests of national security, or it might jeopardise a person's safety.
There were widespread disturbances in London and other English cities in August 2011. They involved arson, looting, rioting and several fatalities. The Secretary of State asked HMIC to report on aspects of the policing within a few days of the events. A comprehensive report on police tactics and police preparedness for the disturbances was published the following December, just over four months later.
The report-entitled ' The rules of engagement: A review of the August 2011 disorders'-was over a hundred pages long. It reviewed police tactics and police preparedness. It found that there was a need for the police to be "better prepared, trained and ready to protect the public if they are to improve upon their response to public disorder." It included a Q.C.'s opinion on the use of force by police officers in some factual scenarios that would commonly occur in public disturbances. The advice suggested what force would, and would not be, lawful in each situation.
The report was written when Sir Denis O'Connor was the Chief Inspector. That was something that probably influenced his appointment. I hope that he can produce something similar within the institutional framework of the IPCC, which is not, it needs emphasising, anything like HMIC.
The recent disturbances appear to make a good case for establishing an oversight body for our Police Force. At present, the Police Force Ordinance is surprisingly light on the issue of oversight. Section 4 of the ordinance says:
"The Commissioner, subject to the orders and control of the Chief Executive, shall be charged with the supreme direction and administration of the police force."
That is an awful lot of power and responsibility to compress in a sentence of fewer than 30 words, with the Chief Executive, surprisingly, having the last word on all policing matters.
The colonial policing model may have been good enough for colonial times. However, as recent events have shown, in this century, people expect police officers to be accountable for the exercise of their considerable police powers.
The IPCC exists to ensure accountability in individual cases where an individual believes police officers have overstepped the mark. However, many people believe police procedures and protocols are failing both the general public and the police force as well. They want oversight. They would rather see regular inspections of the Police Force and all aspects of policing rather than have postmortems into what went wrong on a particular day or days.
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About the author
Philip Dykes is a Senior Counsel. He has lived in Hong Kong for over thirty years. His interests are in literature, language, history, fine art and photography. He worked as government lawyer until 1992 and he is now in private practice.
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