Sunday 19 May 2013

Hampshire Constabulary - Internally networked corruption

The latest attempt to deal with the treatment of police  whistleblowers in the force and aattempt mediate has been rebuffed by Chief Constable Andy Marsh; the new Chief Constable of the force.

The matter was raised by a Hampshire Police Federation representative on behalf of a police whistleblower who has been victimised over a number of years by the force wasting considerable public funds in targeting  whistleblowers whilst; at the same time ignoring their allegations of corruption within Hampshire Professional Standards Department "PSD".

One of the allegations concerned former PSD officers attempting to cover up a Paedophila matter on the Isle of Wight.
Hampshire Police Authority also acquiesced in what was seen to be corruption in failing to investigate  a former Deputy Chief Constable regardinf teh abopve and other connected matters.
Two members of Hampshire Police and Crime Panel subsequently assisted a former Chief Constable in dismissing the police whistleblower on spurious charges of assisting his wife in a catering business in contravention of an order directly from the Chief Constable. This was the first time that a serving police officer has ever been dismissed from a police service without a police disciplinary hearing.

During this case, two police federation representaives were also victimised by the force to such an extent that they became ill, self harming and contemplating suicide.

The IPSG has seen no improvement in the treatment of police federation representatives by senior officers.The IPSG will be forwarding an allegation of recordeable conduct  concerning the conduct of a senior officer Chief Constable towards a police federation representative.

Two former police federation representatives who challenged corruption within PSD were victimised to such an extent that they became suicidal.

A previous chair of Hampshire police federation  had also been intimidated by the head of PSD at that time for also challenging the conduct of Hampshire PSD.

Unusually in Hampshire, police federation reprsentatives had not been given permission to attend an employment tribunal to support an officer, the force had a policy which did not allow police federation reprseentatives from attending employment tribunals unless they were actually giving evidence. By contrast this did not apply to civilian union representatives.

In a recent empolyment tribunal case allegations were made of the force and a senior PSD officer destroying/concealing relevantr policy files in the case.

In common with some other forces, Hampshire PSD appear to act above the law breaching PACE and failing to adhere to the Police (Conduct) Regulations 2008.

What is interesting to note is that whilst officers and staff may be investigated by the PSD and the sanctions can be often inconsistent, what is fairly consistent is that no matter how serious the allegations are concerning PSD officers, the same minimum sanction appears to be given of 'management advice'.

Whilst Hampshire Police Federation no doubt continue to do the best for their members; in reality they have very little power to tackle such issues of corruption withou ultimately sacrificing their own careers.

The IPSG will continue to raise issues of public interest so long as criminal activity remains unchallenged and there is evidence of misconduct in public office directly affecting officers, members of the public and victims of crime.

In relation to the above matters, no further details will be released at this stage as there is now a High Court Claim against the force.












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