Concerns over police ‘marking their own homework’ as Northamptonshire police and crime commissioner announces review after contempt finding
Concerns have been raised around the police ‘marking their own homework’ as the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) has announced a review and series of measures in response to the chief constable being found in contempt of court.
Police boss Ivan Balhatchet was found to be liable at the Court of Appeal after the force repeatedly failed to produce body-worn footage of the arrest of Nadine Buzzard-Quashie, which took place in 2021.
Police staff were also found to have provided ‘inaccurate and incorrect statements' to the court on the chief constable’s behalf, despite a data audit which later revealed the existence of further video footage.
The Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel quizzed Commissioner Danielle Stone at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday (November 27), to dig into how she handled her duties of scrutinising the police chief and holding him to account after the contempt judgment.
Addressing the panel, Ms Stone apologised to Ms Buzzard-Quashie and recognised her ‘grit, determination and integrity’ to get to this result at the Court of Appeal.
She stated that, despite the arrest taking place four years ago in 2021, Mr Balhatchet was not aware of the force’s failings until October this year and her PFCC office was later notified at the start of November.
She continued: “The chief constable has had to take responsibility for failings in the force, as you would expect leaders to do. I and the monitoring officer formally considered the suspension of the chief constable, as you would expect me to, but we decided it wasn’t appropriate at that time.
“The Appeal Court sanction hearing took place, resulting in a fine of £50,000 against Northamptonshire Police. This recognised that the chief constable was only aware of what was going on at a late stage, validating, for me, our non-suspension decision.”
Ms Stone told members that a number of actions had been set in motion by Northamptonshire Police itself to ensure such a situation doesn’t happen again.
This includes the police chief putting together a ‘gold group’ of senior officers who will have oversight of the issue. These groups are generally formed by police as a strategic forum to investigate or respond to an internal or external critical incident.
Other measures also include commissioning another police force to take a peer review of Northants Police, revising policy so body-worn video is retained for a longer time, commissioning an audit into other body-worn video cases, and making voluntary referrals of other officers and staff involved.
‘I’m not content just with the police reviewing itself’
However, the PFCC added: “I feel the need to have my own independent review. I think it’s very good that the chief has acted very swiftly to put all these measures in place, but I’m not content just with the police reviewing itself.”
She explained this would be led by her deputy and will look at all of the documents and the remedial action that the chief is putting into place to be assured ‘this can’t ever happen again’.
Concerns were raised by the panel that the review would not be truly independent and how the public could be confident that it had been investigated fully and that proper accountability had been taken.
Cllr Daniel Lister (Conservative) said: “How can the public trust a police force that operates in contempt of court whilst its own leadership isn’t even aware of what’s happening?
“You said when you appointed the chief that your vetting was really robust and you were setting the pace nationally. How did we miss a contempt of court proceeding?
“We’ve now commissioned an independent review led by your deputy, the chief constable has commissioned a peer review led by another police force – neither of which are independent.”
Cllr Vinnie Whitrow (Reform UK) added: “This isn’t in my opinion, even with an outside review from an outside police force, going to be at all unbiased or transparent in the eyes of the public.
“It’s not going to be at all transparent because they’re marking their own homework with the people who have possibly been involved. I have no faith in it.”
Independent member Pauline Woodhouse also questioned how the public would be able to trust what they hear from the review when it had already been broken by those who were supposed to be in a position of trust.
Ms Stone clarified that her office would also be commissioning an independent person to work alongside her deputy in their review.
She added: “I cannot tell you how angry I have been over this because we have done a huge amount of work out in the community to build up trust and confidence in policing. This has set us back.
“All I can say as reassurance is that we will be open and honest with you and with the public about everything we discover and find out. We will put measures in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“It will be entirely independent – my office is completely independent from the police.”
According to the PFCC, the first stage of the review setting out the terms of reference, scoping and who has been appointed as the independent reviewer will be done before Christmas, with a report to follow in the new year.