Deputies drop their bid to annul new police complaints regulation
STATES members have backed off from a bid to annul a new police complaints regulation following a meeting with the Home Affairs Committee.
The committee has amended its own change to a regulation following concerns raised by a number of deputies.
The key change is that the Police Complaints Commission will write to the complainant when they review a complaint referred to be dismissed under the new provision which allows complaints to be ‘filtered’ by a senior authority.
This means that every dismissal will be automatically reviewed.
As a result, Deputies Carl Meerveld and Gavin St Pier have dropped a motion to annul the change in regulations.
Deputy Meerveld said that he and other deputies were concerned that the only opportunity to challenge a dismissal would have been through judicial review.
‘From the complainant’s perspective, the whole process takes place behind closed doors without any dialogue with them. At a time when there has been so much concern about police conduct and the management of police complaints, it is vital that the community has full confidence in the complaints process,’ he said.
Deputy St Pier said: ‘The revision to the regulations does not give the complainant any right to challenge the decision, but it does at least require the PCC to directly explain their role and the decision to the complainant.
‘We are pleased that Home Affairs listened to the arguments and recognised the issue by further amending the regulations.
‘However, given the police, the PCC and Home Affairs have all accepted that the present Police Complaints Law is not entirely fit for purpose and in need of review and reform, it is really important that this review is now completed as soon as possible, in order to ensure public confidence in the police complaints process and the police.’
Home Affairs has said that the change it had made aligned Guernsey with a similar part of England’s police complaints law. A complaint can be dismissed if there is reason to conclude that the conduct did not take place, or the complaint was ‘repetitious, an abuse of procedures, frivolous or vexatious’.
President Rob Prow said that the change in regulations had ‘immediately improved the process for the police and complainants’, given that serious complaints would also be addressed more quickly.
He said that the meeting with deputies had been constructive and the amendment would ensure increased visibility of the process for complainants.
Deputies Chris Blin, John Dyke, Tina Bury and Marc Leadbeater were also involved in the meeting.
