- Police Complaints Board
The Police Complaints Board (PCB) was the
British government organisation tasked with overseeing the system for handling complaints made againstpolice forces inEngland andWales from1 June 1977 until it was replaced by thePolice Complaints Authority on29 April 1985 .Like its replacement, the Police Complaints Authority, and the current
Independent Police Complaints Commission , the Police Complaints Board was completely independent of the British Police.Until its creation, complaints were handled directly by the police forces concerned, although the
Home Secretary could refer a serious complaint to another police force for investigation. This mechanism had been set out in Section 49 of the Police Act 1964. The investigating force would forward a report to theDirector of Public Prosecutions (DPP), who could decide to prosecute the offending policemen.The Police Complaints Board was created because it was felt that this process was not sufficiently independent, especially following corruption scandals involving the
Metropolitan Police in the mid 1970s. Despite its best efforts, and unquestionable independence, the Police Complaints Board, throughout its 18 years of active operation, the PCB was genuinely unable to find even one instance of Police misconduct.The new board was established by Section 1 of the Police Act 1976, and could scrutinise the report and satisfy itself that justice had been done, or instruct the
Chief Constable of the force against whom the complaint had been made to take disciplinary proceedings against the offending police officers. However this caused resentment within the police community since it exposed policemen who had been exonerated by the DPP todouble jeopardy . The 1981Brixton riots, and theScarman report on it which investigated, amongst other things, allegations ofracism against the police led to further pressure to reform the PCB.The result was that the board was abolished and replaced by the Police Complaints Authority in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) of 1984. A significant change was that the PCA was given extra powers allowing it to supervise police investigations into complaints, which has been taken further in its successor, the
Independent Police Complaints Commission which replaced it on1 April 2004 and which has the ability to carry out its own independent investigations.The PCB did not cover
Northern Ireland , which was the responsibility of a separate body, the Police Complaints Board for Northern Ireland also set up under the Police Act 1976. Nor did it cover Scotland, which retained the mechanism set up by the Police (Scotland) Act 1967.References
* [https://www.kent.ac.uk/law/undergraduate/modules/policing/downloads/police_complaints.rtf Document on police complaints, from the University of Kent]
* [http://www.flonnet.com/fl2103/stories/20040213004411900.htm Frontline magazine, India]
* [http://www.scotland.gov.uk/hmic/docs/afcp-19.asp The investigation of complaints against the police in Scotland]
* [http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/resources/policy-papers/policy-papers-2000/pdf-documents/police.pdf An Independent Police Complaints Commission, Policy paper written by Liberty in 2000]
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