Norfolk's PCC welcomes guidance to sack officers who are violent towards women
Giles Orpen Smellie warns there's still a way to go before this guidance can make a positive impact, in real terms
Our Police and Crime Commissioner has welcomed national recommendations to sack officers who are violent towards women, by the College of Policing.
But he warns that there's still a way to go before this guidance can make a positive impact, in real terms.
"I think we have to set a higher standard for police officers"
Giles Orpen Smellie says this needs to come as part of a wider plan to restore public trust in the service:
"Right at the beginning with their training, in the parade rooms with their peers- with peers upholding standards among themselves. When individual personnel get it wrong, being reported and officers having the courage to come forwards and saying that something that a fellow peer has said is unacceptable. Then we also need the process to be effective in investigating and addressing these issues."
"I think we have to set a higher standard for police officers. I fully accept the ancient principle that the public are the police and the police are the public. But, those who step forward from the public and put on a blue uniform must also accept that they must live to a higher standard because they have greater responsibilities."
He says it's frustrating when a minority let everyone else down:
"Forty percent of Norfolk's Officers get assaulted each year and nine per cent of our officers need A&E treatment each year. Yet they turn up to work, work longer than their shift hours require them to work, they don't get paid brilliantly- they do it because they are brilliant vocational people. So, it's so sad when the one percent go one millimetre over the line".
"The public are not fretted about points of law"
Giles Orpen Smellie says efforts need to be made to ensure this doesn't get needlessly bogged down in the courts:
"There is a risk that if this code of conduct isn't reinforced by law, and I know work is in hand within Government to do so, that the case will decided by technical points of law rather than ethics and standards. The public are not fretted about points of law, they want to see officers who get it wrong be addressed correctly".