Whilst the latest tranche of police whistleblowers come forward and the IPSG are contacted for advice we do have some concerns we would wish to raise.
The IPSG supports genuine police whistleblowers who have raised issues at the time to try and right a wrong.
A number of whistleblowers are coming forward having left the police service and raising matters which took place many years ago.
Had the matters been raised at the time, many years of suffering by both members of the public and police officer colleagues could have been avoided.
Whilst employees in private business may have genuine concerns about losing their jobs and thus remain silent, police officers have a unique status as a holder of an office and cannot ignore crime or the oath they have taken.
If police officers turn a blind eye to colleagues conduct of whatever rank or fail to challenge, one has to wonder whether they have the qualities required of a police officer and are in the right job.
When investigating crimes against the public are those officers also susceptible to being intimidated by criminals and failing to carry out their duties to protect and serve the public.
With regards to the recent activities concerning under cover officers involved in gathering intelligence concerning public order and campaign groups, we do not recognise these as professional and properly trained under cover police officers.
These officers appear to be inexperienced and if they were dealing with high level criminality would most likely have been exposed and eliminated one way or another.
There appears to have been a total lack of proper supervision of these officers and it is well known that undercover officers do not take drugs or have sex whilst on undercover operations.
The experts in under cover policing and training at that time were the Met Police SO10 branch who do not appear to have been involved and the unit the officers were attached to appears to be a product of another ACPO initiative to justify its existence.
Whilst we continue to support police whistleblowers, those who did not have the courage and moral fibre to raise issues at the time which, may have prevented the suffering of others over many years will most likely been shown the door.
