Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland: The Police Complaints System in Northern Ireland Contents 05 14 Dealing with Complaints Investigative Techniques against the Police 16 06 Improving Policing The Police Ombudsman 18 07 ‘The Troubles’ The Hayes Report 19 08 The Complaints Office Serving the Whole Community 20 10 Complaints Outcomes What do People Complain About? 22 13 Making a Complaint Police Ombudsman Investigation Officer 4 Dealing with Complaints Against the Police The Police Ombudsman’s Office provides independent and impartial investigation of complaints about the police in Northern Ireland. The Office opened in November 2000, In addition, the Police Ombudsman replacing the Independent Commission for investigates: Police Complaints (ICPC). Its opening • all discharges of police firearms marked the beginning of an entirely new (including those used in riot situations) system for investigating complaints • all fatal road traffic collisions involving against police officers in Northern Ireland. police officers • and any death which may have Previously, complaints against police were occurred as a result of the actions of a investigated by other police officers. police officer. The Police Ombudsman’s Office, however, In most circumstances the Police has its own teams of professional Ombudsman can investigate only investigators who gather evidence to incidents that have occurred in the show whether or not police officers have previous 12 months. However, there is no acted improperly. time limit on the investigation of grave or exceptional matters. As a result, the Police The Office was the first fully-funded and Ombudsman has investigated many completely independent police complaints complaints from the relatives of people organisation in the world. It has been who died during ‘The Troubles’ (the conflict described as the international “gold in Northern Ireland during the final three standard” for police complaints and similar decades of the 20th Century). organisations have since been set up in a number of countries, including England, Following an investigation - if the evidence Wales and the Republic of Ireland. suggests that police officers have broken the law or breached the police Code of Currently, about 3,000 complaints per year Ethics - the Police Ombudsman can are made about police officers in Northern recommend that they are prosecuted Ireland. These include complaints about or disciplined. use of force by police officers, and allegations that officers failed to do their Whether there is evidence to support the jobs properly, that police officers complaint or not, the Police Ombudsman perverted the course of justice or were will inform both parties to the complaint rude or offensive during the course of of its outcome and in cases of public their duties. interest make a general statement about the findings. She will also make any relevant recommendations for the improvement of police policy and practice. 5 The Police Ombudsman The Police Ombudsman is Mrs Nuala O’Loan, who is a qualified solicitor. MRS O’LOAN NEW CATHEDRAL BUILDINGS, THE POLICE OMBUDSMAN’S OFFICES IN CENTRAL BELFAST Mrs O’Loan has served in a number of The Police Ombudsman’s offices are in roles which have drawn upon her central Belfast, just off Donegall Street, experience of rights issues and legal opposite St Anne’s Cathedral. matters, including: • the Energy and Transport Group of the The Office has around 130 staff. About General Consumer Council for Northern 90 are employed within the Investigations Ireland (1991 to 1996) Directorate, including staff who record and process complaints, investigators, and • the UK Domestic Coal Consumers’ support staff. Council (1992-95) • the Northern Health and Social Others are employed in the Corporate Services Board (1993-97) Services, Information, Legal Services, and Policy and Practice directorates. • a Ministerial Working Group on The office has an annual operating the Green Economy (1993-95) budget of around £8m. • and the Police Authority for Northern Ireland (1997-99). She was a Legal Expert Member at the European Commission’s Consumers’ Consultative Council (1994-97) and chairman of the Northern Ireland Consumer Council for Electricity (1997-2000). Mrs O’Loan is a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England & Wales and is married and has five sons. Her term as Police Ombudsman ends in November 2007. 6 The Hayes Report The story of the Police Ombudsman’s Office can be traced back to November 1995 when a senior civil servant, Dr Maurice Hayes, was appointed to review the police complaints system in Northern Ireland. Dr Hayes was asked to produce a “He/she would investigate complaints blueprint for a new system which could against police even where the action earn the confidence of the people complained of might amount to criminal of Northern Ireland, and of the behaviour, if proven, and would in such police themselves. cases carry the criminal investigation through to a recommendation to the After consulting widely with political Director for Public Prosecutions.” parties, members of the public, the police and policing organisations, Dr Hayes Dr Hayes’ recommendations were largely produced his report in January 1997. accepted by the Government, which passed legislation to bring the new office “The overwhelming message I got from into being. nearly all sides and from all political parties was the need for the investigation The Police (Northern Ireland) Act 1998 set to be independent and to be seen to out the role and powers of the new Police be independent,” stated Dr Hayes in Ombudsman, and after some months of the report. preparation the Office opened and began operating on 6 November 2000. He recommended that an independent Police Ombudsman should be appointed to deal with all complaints against the police. The Ombudsman should, he said, be supported by a team of professional investigators “which might include investigators from Customs and Excise or DHSS, lawyers, people with police experience and others.” INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION: THE HAYES REPORT RECOMMENDED THAT COMPLAINTS AGAINST THE POLICE SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED BY TEAMS OF INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATORS. 7 Serving the Whole Community When the Police Ombudsman's Office opened in November 2000, the policing debate in Northern Ireland was at its height. The Patten Commission had published its report "A New Beginning: Policing in Northern Ireland" the year before. It made 175 recommendations for change, 87% of Catholics and 78% of Protestants public interest, that such information is including that the Royal Ulster also believed that the Office was helping made available. Constabulary should be replaced by a new to improve policing. Police Service of Northern Ireland. Our website (www.policeombudsman.org) The Office's independence and provides a lot of information about our It also advocated "50-50 recruitment" to impartiality was also being recognised by work, including statistics about the address the under-representation of police officers. A survey of more than 400 number and type of complaints we deal Catholics in the police service (with 50% police officers investigated by the Office with, detailed summaries of major of new recruits being Catholic and 50% during 2006/7 revealed that: investigations, press releases, online being Protestants and other religions). • 83% believed they had been treated forms and publications. fairly The proposals were radical, and Unionist • and of those officers who had spoken Our staff have given presentations to and Nationalist opinion on the issue was to a Police Ombudsman investigator, many schools, community groups and starkly polarised. 93% said the investigator had been District Policing Partnerships across professional, Northern Ireland. The Police Ombudsman's Office was • 92% said they had been impartial therefore borne into a period of • 88% said they had been And thousands of police officers have momentous and controversial policing knowledgeable attended presentations by the Office, so change. • and 70% were satisfied or very that they know what to expect should a satisfied overall with how they had complaint be made against them. Against this backdrop, the Office was been treated by the Office. required by law to try to secure the We also send information to the police, support of the whole community and of Policing Board and District Policing the police themselves. Given that INFORMING THE COMMUNITY Partnerships on a regular basis, so that Northern Ireland society itself had been so It is unlikely that these levels of public they know the sorts of issues that are divided by the policing debate, few gave and police support could have been giving rise to complaints. the new Office any chance of achieving achieved if the Office had not, from the that objective. outset, adopted a policy of openness and If you know of any group or organisation transparency in relation to its work. which would like to learn more about the Yet, within five years of opening, the Police Ombudsman’s Office, please Police Ombudsman's Office had secured We try to provide as much information contact us on 028 9082 8746 and we will the support of around 80% of people on about our work as we can. We do this be happy to speak to you about doing a both sides of the community divide in while recognising the need to protect the presentation about our work. Northern Ireland. confidentiality of individual complainants and police officers. An independent survey conducted in early 2007 indicated that 88% of Protestants If police do a good job, we will say so. If and 84% of Catholics believed believed mistakes are made, or offences committed, that police officers and complainants we will also report on those and any would be treated fairly by the Police disciplinary action, prosecutions or Ombudsman’s Office. recommendations for improvements to policing that result. It is important, in the 8 ( ABOVE )THE CHAIRMAN OF THE NORTHERN IRELAND POLICING BOARD, SIR DESMOND REA, ADDRESSES DELEGATES AT A THREE DAY INTERNATIONAL POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY CONFERENCE Internationally Recognised ORGANISED BY THE POLICE OMBUDSMAN’S OFFICE.