1 Introduction
1. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC)
was established by the Police Reform Act 2002, and became operational
in April 2004. Its primary statutory purpose is to increase public
confidence in the police complaints system in England and Wales.
The IPCC investigates the most serious complaints and allegations
of misconduct against the police in England and Wales, and handles
appeals from people who are not satisfied with the way police
have dealt with their complaints.
2. We originally planned to take evidence from Nick
Hardwick, Chairman of the IPCC, on 23 February 2010 to examine
the performance of the IPCC in the period 2008-09, and more widely,
to investigate how the organisation has developed in the six years
since its inception. This session was pre-empted by media stories,
most notably BBC Radio Four's File on Four programme of
19 January 2010,[1] which
alleged that many complainants to the IPCC were subsequently dissatisfied
with its performance, and that the IPCC was increasingly perceived
to be siding with the police.
3. Following these Reports we decided to expand our
inquiry to take evidence from those who have been critical of
the performance of the IPCC: Marcia Rigg, whose brother Sean died
in police custody in August 2008 and whose case was subsequently
investigated by the Commission; Deborah Coles from the charity,
INQUEST; and Mr John Crawley, a Commissioner of the IPCC between
2004 and 2008. Following this session we took further written
evidence from groups such as the Police Federation and the Police
Action Lawyers Group. This evidence is published with this Report.
We thank all those people who have helped us in our inquiry.
1 A transcript of this programme can be found at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/19_01_10_fo4_ipcc.pdf Back
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