Five year legislative review

What is the current position?

Where the criteria for a Chief Constable referral has not been met (as described in section 14), the Chief Constable may notify the Police Ombudsman of certain matters which then allows the Ombudsman to consider whether to commence an ‘own motion’ investigation.

Notifications can include matters which have resulted in serious injury to a person as a result of police action, where police have discharged a firearm, sexual offences or any allegations which may cause widespread public concern.

What we propose

We believe that the Chief Constable should be required to notify the Police Ombudsman of a matter of concern when it is in the public interest to do so.

We believe that the Police Ombudsman should have the power to direct matters which should be notified after consultation with the Chief Constable.

Why is it important?

Currently there is no statutory basis for the PSNI to notify the Police Ombudsman of an incident which does not meet the threshold criteria of a referral (that is, where an officer may have committed a criminal offence or behaved in a manner which would justify disciplinary proceedings).

The ability for the Police Ombudsman to specify matters which should be notified allows flexibility to reflect current issues or trends. For example, during the Covid pandemic, the Police Ombudsman asked that the use of spit and bite guards, which were new at that time, be notified and the PSNI agreed. However, this was done by way of consultation.