Bias perception of PSNI ombudsman

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/7645342.stm

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Under a third of police officers in Northern Ireland think the Police Ombudsman's office is doing a good job, a new survey has indicated.

Research into the attitude of police found 26% felt the office did a poor job, but 31% felt it did a good one.

Ombudsman Al Hutchinson said there was a perception his office was biased against officers.

However, the survey found 37% of officers believed the Ombudsman had improved the accountability of police.

A further 26% took the contrary view and the remaining 37% had mixed views.

The survey highlighted that 68% of officers considered the police should have the right to have complaints against police independently investigated. Al Hutchinson said there was a perception of bias

The survey also found that 62% of officers said the possibility of a complaint affected the way they did their job at least to some extent, while 83% said a complaint prevented them from doing a better job.

Mr Hutchinson said that overall, judgements of the job done by his office were more likely to be positive than negative.

"What is challenging is that officers are saying that they support independent investigation but also have a perception that we may be biased against them," he said.

"This is not the case - and the officers who have been subject to investigation are saying so very clearly."

The findings of the survey were based on the responses of 2,350 officers to questions from the Social and Market Research Organisation.

Police Federation chairman Terry Spence said he welcomed the first signs of growing improvement in police attitudes to the Ombudsman's office.

He said: "I am confident that we have the opportunity to build upon these results.

"I agree with the Police Ombudsman that the challenge remains to remove any sense of constraint that officers might feel that they could somehow be penalised for doing their proper duty."