Watching 
the detectives

Indeed, considering that the chairwoman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, Dame Anne Owers, agreed with the findings of the Home Affairs Select Committee, admitting that the IPCC was struggling to meet expectations and needed more resources and powers, the situation could even be seen as desperate.

This is why Theresa May acted promptly to strengthen the watchdog, ordering the transfer of scores of serving police officers into the IPCC to increase the amount of cases it can investigate.

However, considering that the IPCC is facing a huge range of complex and high-profile cases, including the investigation into the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster, it is crucially important that the Home Secretary’s reforms are the correct ones and that they remedy the watchdog’s clear deficiencies.

Yet the Chief Constable of Humberside, Tim Hollis, has pointed out a glaring contradiction in the immediate measures that Mrs May has taken. When one of the most damning criticisms which the MPs made of the IPCC was the prevalence of former police officers in its ranks – creating an old boys’ network that damages the public perception of a fair, impartial organisation – why is Mrs May wanting to pack the watchdog with even more officers?

Indeed, considering the cutbacks under which police forces are already labouring, the Home Secretary, by taking more officers away from their forces, risks further weakening police effectiveness at a time of national upheaval.

True, the IPCC needs to be beefed up and quickly, but the mass transfer of serving officers should only be a temporary measure pending the introduction of lasting reforms that are properly thought through, giving the public confidence that the police are subject to an inspection regime that is properly resourced and fully effective.