Source · IOPC Learning Case

Recommendation - Sussex Police, April 2021

Sussex Police Ref: 2020/138972 Recommended 1 Apr 2021 Response due 27 May 2021

Road traffic incidents

A Road Traffic Collision (RTC) occurred between an unmarked police vehicle and a cyclist on a roundabout. The cyclist sustained a serious injury and the police officer admitted liability at the scene. The officer was on duty but was not answering an emergency. The Investigating Officer (IO) stated there was no specific guidance for dealing with an officer for low level driving without due care and attention while on duty but not answering an emergency.

View on IOPC website ↗

Recommendations

1 total

Recommendation 1

The IOPC recommends that Sussex Police devise specific guidance on the disposal options to be made available when dealing with low level driving collisions committed by any officer on duty but not answering an emergency. All Roads Policing Investigators and Professional Standards Department staff are to be made aware of the new guidance once it is in place. This follows a Death or Serious Injury report reviewed by the IOPC in which the IO established that there was no specific guidance as to how to deal with an officer for what was regarded as low level and/or low speed driving without due and care and attention whilst on duty, but not answering an emergency. An RTC occurred between an unmarked police vehicle and a cyclist on a roundabout, where the officer admitted liability at the scene and the cyclist sustained a serious injury. The officer was on duty but not answering an emergency. The process that was followed, as a result of this particular incident, could be used as the foundation for the proposed guidance. In order to achieve consistency, it would be advisable if all future similar incidents followed the new guidance, including the provision of breath and drug testing by the officer (which proved negative in this specific case). Do you accept the recommendation? Yes

Addressed to: Sussex Police

Linked bodies: Sussex Police

Accepted

Force response

Accepted action: Sussex police in collaboration with Surrey Police had already recognised disparity in approach and so had been working on reviewing the policy surrounding these issues prior to the learning recommendation being made. At the time the informal recommendation was sent, this work was still in progress but is now complete. Sussex Police will be implementing a new process to enable line managers, Roads Policing lead investigators and command teams to suitably mitigate any immediate risk whilst simultaneously providing a guidance framework to implement behavioural interventions or sanctions. This process is being piloted in Operations Command from the 1st of June 2021 and will be rolled out further from there. The disposal options range from the award of risk points to a police driver permit, through to behavioural intervention & psychometric evaluation, reduction in driver grade, suspension of permit or evaluation for misconduct if appropriate. This is in line with national and regional best practice and I believe meets the required learning recommendation above. N.B. New policy documents have been provided with this response.