Police complaints watchdog was ‘stretched to the limit’ with investigations

The police complaints watchdog has revealed that it was nearly overwhelmed by cases involving senior officers.

Kate Frame, the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) (pictured), said her resources had been “stretched to the limit” and that she had been worried the situation would be unsustainable.

PIRC has launched five misconduct investigations in six months into Chief Constable Philip Gormley, currently on special leave, as well as other senior officers in Police Scotland.

Ms Frame said in a letter to the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee: As an illustration of the current pressure on that team, I can advise you that there are currently 30.6 full time equivalent investigators working on 31 live concurrent investigations – some of which individually have required over 100 witness statements to be taken. These investigations include allegations of criminality by police officers and death investigations, as well as the high profile senior officer misconduct referrals.”

She told MSPs: “Throughout 2017, I continued to witness an increase in the scale and complexity of investigations referred to me and a considerable rise in the number of senior officer misconduct referrals.”

In November she was offered a one-off £100,000 addition to her 2017-18 budget and last week was “further heartened” by £1,068,000 by being added to her budget, which “meets the current business demands of the PIRC”.