SCOTTISH
POLICE FEDERATION
5 Woodside Place, Glasgow, G3 7QF
MEDIA
RELEASE
The Scottish Police Federation represents all police officers in the
ranks of chief inspector and below, about 15,000 people, over 98%
of all police officers in Scotland.
To:
Date:
Subject: |
Editor
1
March 2005
Police
officers retiring to avoid inquiries
|
Mr
Douglas Keil, General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation
said,
“It
seems it has been necessary for the Herald to trawl through years
of records to find anything statistically relevant in relation to
this. Even then, to quote the fact that in the last 6 years one officer
from Strathclyde Police retired on ill-health before an investigation
is hardly good evidence of a problem. However, I am sure there are
officers who have resigned or retired while the subject of a complaint.
I think this is more likely to be a question of timing than a question
of trying to escape justice.
Remember
when we are talking about complaints in this context we are talking
about something short of criminality, if an officer is accused of
a crime or offence then whether he or she retires or not, that can
be pursued.
A
discipline or a conduct matter is a different thing and in Scotland
an officer cannot be prevented from retiring or resigning because
he or she is the subject to a complaint against discipline or conduct.
I don't think anyone would expect a police officer to be prevented
from retiring just because someone complained a few weeks or months
previously that he or she had been ‘uncivil' or for some other minor
non-criminal matter.
In
these circumstances the police operate like any other occupation.
A police pension can be forfeited but only for the most serious and
exceptional circumstances which will almost certainly involve a lengthy
custodial sentence. So the notion that we have large numbers of officers
resigning or retiring to save their pensions is simply not true.”
