:01:58. > :02:04.Policing the streets but going too far. You're hitting him, a lot of
:02:04. > :02:09.punches. Yes. It looks like you are giving him... It does. Where do you
:02:09. > :02:13.draw the line? If you are dealing with members of the public in high-
:02:13. > :02:18.stress situations, occasionally you get it wrong. When police officers
:02:18. > :02:23.get it badly wrong, what is the punishment? I do fear that both of
:02:23. > :02:28.those officers should have lost their jobs. Discipline handed down
:02:28. > :02:33.behind closed doors while some officers simply walk away. It is
:02:33. > :02:38.not very open. It is not. I think nobody would suggest it is a
:02:38. > :02:44.particularly open system. Tonight, we ask, just to his policing the
:02:44. > :02:54.police? I blame the police for not doing their job properly, and I
:02:54. > :03:05.
:03:05. > :03:15.When Anna officer starts his shift, he has no idea what he will face.
:03:15. > :03:17.
:03:17. > :03:24.Sergeant Andy Sutherland is patrolling East Durham. There has
:03:24. > :03:29.been a suspected attack. It is about a mile away to the address,
:03:29. > :03:39.maybe a mile and a half. Every call-out involves a set of split-
:03:39. > :03:43.
:03:43. > :03:53.The minute he stepped inside the house, he will have to decide what
:03:53. > :03:53.
:03:53. > :03:57.to do. If he gets it wrong, his job Everyone in sight is OK. The
:03:57. > :04:02.situation is sorted. We will go and have a look and see if we can find
:04:02. > :04:06.in... But every call he attends carries a risk. You do not know
:04:06. > :04:10.what you are coming to, 90 times out of 100 it will be exactly like
:04:10. > :04:15.this, but on another occasion there will be something far more sinister
:04:16. > :04:25.or potentially very violent. If the police get it wrong, it can have
:04:26. > :04:29.
:04:29. > :04:39.A busy night in Wigan town centre. Like most towns on a weekend, it is
:04:39. > :04:44.rowdy, there is lots of alcohol, It is a world that the delight but
:04:44. > :04:50.knew well. As a special constable, volunteering as an unpaid police
:04:50. > :04:55.officer, this was his beat. always was happy to get involved,
:04:55. > :04:59.and I wasn't frightened of being, you know, arresting people, getting
:04:59. > :05:03.involved, doing the actual job of a police officer, rather than being
:05:03. > :05:09.somebody just standing mayor in a uniform. But getting involved
:05:09. > :05:13.changed his life. Filmed on CCTV, he and two full-time colleagues
:05:13. > :05:17.were called to deal with a man outside a nightclub. The only thing
:05:17. > :05:22.we knew was that he had been causing problems, and we had been
:05:22. > :05:26.called by the door staff to deal with it. He was pushed, he stumbled,
:05:26. > :05:31.and he fell into the road and banged his head on the floor. He
:05:31. > :05:41.came back and started remonstrating with us. The three officers tried
:05:41. > :05:41.
:05:41. > :05:46.to move him on, but he would not go, During the arrest, the man on the
:05:46. > :05:52.floor, Mark Aspinall, bites one of the officers are on the leg. It
:05:52. > :05:54.takes the three of them to carve him. There has been situations
:05:54. > :05:59.throughout my service that have been like that and worse.
:05:59. > :06:03.Situations like that in Wigan happen all the time. Magistrates
:06:03. > :06:08.found Mark Aspinall, a former soldier, guilty of assault and
:06:08. > :06:12.public disorder. So everything seemed pretty straightforward to
:06:12. > :06:15.Peter Lightfoot, a normal night on the streets, if you like, but
:06:15. > :06:23.everything was to change, and in the end he would find himself here
:06:23. > :06:29.Mark Aspinall later complained about the way he was arrested and
:06:29. > :06:34.appealed his assault conviction. The CCTV footage was watched again.
:06:34. > :06:40.This time, the appeal judge said it was the police officers who had
:06:40. > :06:44.behaved badly, abusing their powers. Mark Aspinall's conviction for
:06:44. > :06:47.assault was quashed. Greater Manchester police launched an
:06:47. > :06:52.investigation into the way their own officers had acted that night.
:06:52. > :06:56.It looks like you're banging his face. I have got hold of his head
:06:56. > :07:00.there, and what he has tried to do is move his head forward to bite,
:07:00. > :07:06.and I am pulling it back, but it looks like I am rubbing his head on
:07:06. > :07:12.the floor. But that is not what I was doing. It also shows him
:07:12. > :07:20.repeatedly punching Mark Aspinall. So you have hit him. Yes. And again.
:07:20. > :07:24.Yes. A lot of punches. Yeah, six. It looks like you're giving in a
:07:24. > :07:29.leather ring. It does. I took my own initiative from remembering
:07:29. > :07:34.what you can do within the training that we were given, to punch a
:07:34. > :07:37.muscle area on his shoulder to try and make him release his arm. On my
:07:38. > :07:45.sixth bunch, he actually released his arm enough to wrench it out,
:07:45. > :07:49.and then we got the handcuff on him, and that was it, game over. Peter
:07:49. > :07:53.Lightfoot and the two full-time officers face criminal charges. It
:07:53. > :08:00.went to trial. His colleagues were cleared, but Peter was jailed. He
:08:00. > :08:03.served seven months of a three-year sentence for assault and perjury.
:08:03. > :08:07.At the heart of policing is your ability and the great British
:08:07. > :08:11.tradition to use the minimum of force, to deal with violent
:08:11. > :08:16.situations, to not lose your temper, and that is the standard that we
:08:16. > :08:20.set. And Mr Lightfoot fell below that standard. I do not believe I
:08:20. > :08:25.went too far, I did what any other police officer would do. The
:08:25. > :08:29.problem is, when you are there at the situation, you have got a split
:08:29. > :08:31.second to deal with and to make a decision on what you are going to
:08:31. > :08:35.do, and you have got to live with that decision. It does not matter
:08:35. > :08:40.what your record is or how many lives you have saved or whatever.
:08:40. > :08:45.If you break the law, you are just as liable as any other citizen, and
:08:45. > :08:49.we set a very high standard, and I do not apologise for that. So, open
:08:49. > :08:59.and shut, but it took three court cases before it was decided that
:08:59. > :09:01.
:09:01. > :09:07.The thing about his case is that we know all the details. There was a
:09:07. > :09:10.trial, his mistake and his punishment for a public. -- were a
:09:11. > :09:15.public. But most police disciplinary matters are kept away
:09:15. > :09:20.from the public gaze. Virtually every case is dealt with behind
:09:20. > :09:30.closed doors, and that can be very hard for those affected by their
:09:30. > :09:36.
:09:36. > :09:43.Is this the only place you had ever lived, then? Yes. It brings back
:09:43. > :09:48.quite a few memories. How do you feel as we walked down here now?
:09:48. > :09:52.feels weird. Yeah, I just feel a bit weird. 18-year-old Aaron and
:09:52. > :10:02.his sister Hayleigh will never forget the night they have to call
:10:02. > :10:07.
:10:07. > :10:11.I ran down the stairs, and I heard Anne Aaron shouting, get off me.
:10:11. > :10:19.And then he started coming towards me, so my mum got Inbetweeners.
:10:19. > :10:22.From that moment, I saw him with a knife in his hand, stabbing mum.
:10:22. > :10:26.When they caught Northamptonshire Police, then mum's partner, armed
:10:26. > :10:31.with a knife, was still in the house, and Aaron was trying to keep
:10:31. > :10:39.his mother alive. I was just expecting the police to come
:10:39. > :10:43.straight away. Time was going so slow, I did not know what to do. I
:10:43. > :10:49.started to wonder whether they would come. Paramedics had arrived,
:10:49. > :10:56.but the police had not, so they were stuck outside. The police did
:10:56. > :11:06.not arrive until 19 minutes after the first 999 call. Martin Ashby
:11:06. > :11:06.
:11:06. > :11:11.was arrested. Then mum, a Louise Webster, was dead. It was too late.
:11:11. > :11:14.He felt like part of you had just died. One the family did not know
:11:14. > :11:18.was that two Northamptonshire Police officers were practically at
:11:18. > :11:24.the bottom of their street when Louise Webster was being attacked
:11:24. > :11:28.and in children asked for help. The call to the emergency services was
:11:29. > :11:33.made at 11 minutes past midnight. No, we know where the police
:11:33. > :11:37.officers work, because there was a GPS transmitter in their car, and
:11:37. > :11:42.at 12 minutes past, one minute later, and again at quarter past,
:11:42. > :11:47.we know they were in the immediate vicinity of Abbots Way. They were
:11:47. > :11:51.just down the road. It took an inquiry by the Independent Police
:11:51. > :12:00.Complaints Commission to discover that, minutes later, as they left
:12:00. > :12:03.the village, the officers refused to attend the emergency call.
:12:03. > :12:07.they were and our shoes, they would want everything to help them, but
:12:07. > :12:12.we had nothing that night. We had to rely on each other, to look
:12:12. > :12:18.after each other and to look after mum, and to just try and be as safe
:12:18. > :12:23.as we could within that half hour. Why would the officers not respond?
:12:23. > :12:29.They said they were busy on an operation based six miles away in
:12:29. > :12:34.Northampton. They claimed that they ended up at the bottom of the
:12:34. > :12:37.Websters Panorama Road because they had followed a car there, but then
:12:37. > :12:47.notebook show they had not dealt with a single incident in the
:12:47. > :12:48.
:12:48. > :12:54.previous six hours. -- the West theres' Road. They knew it was a
:12:54. > :12:59.serious crime, at the end of the day they should have gone. No two
:12:59. > :13:04.ways about it. It would not have cost them anything to have gone.
:13:04. > :13:13.Medical experts said that Louise Webster's life could not have been
:13:13. > :13:18.saved. Kirk Ola, Martin Ashby, was jailed for life. -- Birkenau. --
:13:18. > :13:22.Birkenau. The IPCC ruled that the officers had failed in their sworn
:13:22. > :13:27.duty to protect life for at least attempt to do so. They are forced
:13:27. > :13:32.decided this was a case of gross misconduct. The definition of gross
:13:32. > :13:36.misconduct his conduct for which an officer is likely to be sacked, so
:13:36. > :13:45.clearly that is the risk the officer is facing. So would they
:13:46. > :13:52.lose their jobs? That was another decision for Northamptonshire
:13:52. > :13:55.Police. Two senior officers and an independent person looked at the
:13:55. > :14:00.information, and the result was that the two offices kept their
:14:00. > :14:03.jobs and received a final written warnings. It really does not mean
:14:03. > :14:07.anything at all. Just make sure you keep your nose clean in the future,
:14:07. > :14:10.that is it. What is wrong with that? If they are not doing their
:14:10. > :14:17.job properly, they should have been some other form of punishment,
:14:17. > :14:21.surely. They should have left their jobs for that. If they could not
:14:21. > :14:27.turn up to something so important, like that, then what are they
:14:27. > :14:30.actually going to turn up to? this case, the family thought the
:14:30. > :14:34.officers got off incredibly likely. I can understand how they feel like
:14:34. > :14:38.that. I can only say, from our point of view, these things are
:14:38. > :14:44.investigated very seriously, and the panels take them very seriously.
:14:44. > :14:50.When it comes to misconduct cases, the police investigate themselves.
:14:50. > :14:56.The IPCC have a role in only a small number of very serious cases.
:14:56. > :15:00.The most they can do is identify misconduct. The punishment is
:15:00. > :15:05.completely down to the individual officers' force. The panels which
:15:05. > :15:09.decide the outcome of misconduct hearings almost always sit in
:15:09. > :15:16.private. Individual forces deal with their own cases behind closed
:15:16. > :15:22.doors. Jocelyn Cockburn is a lawyer who specialises in handling cases
:15:22. > :15:25.against the police. The problem is that you get inconsistency, but
:15:26. > :15:28.there is not transparency in the first place. That is where there is
:15:28. > :15:33.a gap here, because there's very little evidence to show that
:15:33. > :15:39.lessons are being learned. Police misconduct can be anything from
:15:39. > :15:44.rudeness to physical violence. Now, the police are supposed to be one
:15:44. > :15:52.of the most regulated public bodies, but who is making sure the
:15:52. > :15:54.misconduct panels do their job? There is no overall body that has
:15:54. > :15:59.responsibility for the police misconduct system, other than the
:16:00. > :16:03.Home Office, I daresay. So no-one was watching that area. Individual
:16:03. > :16:07.forces report to individual police authorities, so the authorities
:16:07. > :16:17.have a role there, but a single overarching body? I don't believe
:16:17. > :16:18.
:16:18. > :16:22.there is. Should they be? Very So, how many decisions are made
:16:22. > :16:27.about police misconduct with little or no national oversight? Well,
:16:27. > :16:35.it's not easy to find out. We put in freedom of information requests
:16:35. > :16:42.to 53 forces in the UK. 47 of them responded.
:16:42. > :16:47.We discovered that there were 1,915 guilty findings against officers
:16:47. > :16:52.for misconduct between 2008 and 2010.
:16:52. > :16:56.382 were dismissed or required to resign. So nearly a fifth of
:16:56. > :17:01.punishments handed down ended in officers leaving the force.
:17:01. > :17:04.And all of these decisions about police misconduct are being made in
:17:04. > :17:10.private, with almost no national oversight.
:17:10. > :17:16.What is lost, do you think, the fact that nobody has that single
:17:16. > :17:19.overview? Well, I think it makes consistency a problem. Guidance can
:17:19. > :17:22.be a problem. And I think it does have an impact
:17:22. > :17:27.on public confidence. Are you confident with a system
:17:27. > :17:32.with no national overview? Well, we have 43 forces in the country. So
:17:33. > :17:37.we are not a national system. The Independent Police Complaints
:17:37. > :17:41.Commission has a system? They are away what is happening with
:17:41. > :17:46.misconduct. They say it is not down to them.
:17:46. > :17:49.They do report cases, trends. They don't have to? Police
:17:49. > :17:53.authority is locally overseeing what is happening. They are aware
:17:53. > :17:57.of the case, the complaints, they take it very seriously.
:17:57. > :18:05.So what can the police forces do to make sure that their officers get
:18:05. > :18:15.it right in the first place? Back in Durham, they're preparing their
:18:15. > :18:18.officers for the complicated situations that they might face.
:18:18. > :18:21.But as Sergeant Andy Sutherland knows, training won't always
:18:21. > :18:29.protect officers from complaints by the public.
:18:29. > :18:35.How often have complaints been made against you? Hmm in my service,
:18:35. > :18:38.probably seven or eight times. Is that common? Yeah, I think it is
:18:38. > :18:42.probably reflective. If you are dealing with members of
:18:42. > :18:46.the public in high-stress situations, occasionally as a
:18:47. > :18:51.police officer you are going to get it wrong.
:18:51. > :18:55.Those public complaints against Andy were not upheld. Last year
:18:55. > :18:59.around 30,000 were levelled at the police nationally, but when jobs
:18:59. > :19:03.are on the line, can officers afford to admit that they might
:19:03. > :19:08.have made a mistake? Do you think that the majority of officers find
:19:08. > :19:12.it difficult to admit that they are wrong? It is not that they find it
:19:12. > :19:16.difficult, but they are suspicious. They don't trust the system. We
:19:16. > :19:20.need a more common-sense approach that admits that the police
:19:20. > :19:24.officers are human. That they do sometimes make mistakes and is
:19:24. > :19:29.accepting of that. That is hard when police failures
:19:29. > :19:35.lead to terrible loss. Harder still when you are let down not just by
:19:35. > :19:40.one force, by four. I heard a car pull up. I didn't
:19:40. > :19:46.look out of the window. Sometimes you see a car, you listen or look
:19:46. > :19:51.out of the window to see who it is, that night I didn't.
:19:51. > :19:59.That was... That was the night that he came and picked her up outside
:19:59. > :20:04.of my house. In Darlington, Andrea Hall's 17-year-old daughter, Arbly
:20:04. > :20:08.was befriended online by a 33-year- old man pretending to be a young
:20:08. > :20:12.lad. Would she talk to you about
:20:12. > :20:19.boyfriends? That was the odd bit. Yeah, she used to tell me
:20:19. > :20:22.everything until that night. 24 hours after Ashley walked from
:20:22. > :20:27.the door, her mother's frantic calls to her mobile phone were
:20:27. > :20:33.answered. By this time I was shouting down
:20:33. > :20:38.the phone, "Who are you jj" he would ask who I was, but I said
:20:38. > :20:46.that this was my daughter's phone, I wanted to know why he had it.
:20:46. > :20:49.It was a police officer. Ashley's phone had been found after
:20:49. > :20:59.being arrested for a driving offence. When he was taken to the
:20:59. > :21:06.
:21:06. > :21:09.This man is Peter Chapman. He had just confessed to killing Andrea's
:21:09. > :21:13.daughter. You get that horrible, horrible
:21:13. > :21:20.feeling inside you like it is just... I can't explain. Just like
:21:20. > :21:25.your heart is being ripped out. Ashley had been raped and murdered
:21:25. > :21:30.by Peter Chapman, her body found in a ditch at the side of the road.
:21:30. > :21:33.If I had stuck to saying "no", she would never have gone, sorry...
:21:33. > :21:38.Sorry. She wouldn't have gone. She would
:21:38. > :21:43.have stayed. You can't blame yourself.
:21:43. > :21:48.Yeah, but you do. What Andrea did not know then is
:21:48. > :21:52.that Peter Chapman could have been stopped. He was a known sex
:21:52. > :21:56.offender, supposing to be monitored by the Merseyside Police, but for
:21:56. > :22:00.nine months they did not know where he was.
:22:00. > :22:10.One force had lost track of him. Three others then failed to stop
:22:10. > :22:10.
:22:10. > :22:15.him. Because just three days before
:22:15. > :22:23.Ashley was murdered, a Nationwide alert had been put out for Peter
:22:23. > :22:28.Chapman. During that time his car was spotted near Ash ley's home 16
:22:28. > :22:33.times by special police cameras that recognise registration numbers.
:22:33. > :22:41.On some occasions the police had looked for him, but twice, in
:22:41. > :22:49.Cleveland, 48 hours after Ashleyy was killed, they didn't.
:22:49. > :22:55.The police were given information, they were looking alt information
:22:55. > :23:00.from the cameras. Then, the problem was not spotted. The people who
:23:00. > :23:07.were supposed to be watching were not logged on to the system. By
:23:07. > :23:13.this time Ashley was in his car. As the night moved on, he was spotted
:23:13. > :23:21.again by cameras across the north- east, but nothing was done.
:23:21. > :23:26.During that journey, Ashley was killed.
:23:26. > :23:33.Who do you blame for her death? blame him because he did it, but I
:23:33. > :23:42.also blame the police for not doing their job properly. I always will.
:23:42. > :23:48.The IPCC produced two reports into Ashley Hall's death. They called
:23:48. > :23:52.for a review on the way that the police cameras are operated and
:23:52. > :23:57.criticised Merseysideside's poor monitoring the of sex offenders.
:23:57. > :24:01.They said that although the murder was missed it may not have been
:24:01. > :24:06.possible to prevent the death, but her mother is clear, the police let
:24:06. > :24:09.her and her daughter down. Now I have read that, I know for a
:24:09. > :24:13.fact that my daughter would still be here today. There is no
:24:13. > :24:18.questions about it. She would definitely be here. That makes me
:24:18. > :24:24.feel worse now. They could have prevented all of this.
:24:24. > :24:29.What concerns Andreas the most about the IPCC report is that no-
:24:29. > :24:35.one was blamed. In no place was anyone held accountable where the
:24:35. > :24:40.killer was spotted. Only two low-ranking officers
:24:40. > :24:44.received management advice. Across the whole Merseyside force no
:24:44. > :24:52.senior officers were held to account. So why isn't the IPCC
:24:52. > :24:57.harder on the police? All of the criticisms, it is normally low-
:24:57. > :25:01.ranking officers that may end up with the punishment, is that a fair
:25:01. > :25:05.criticism? No, I don't. We follow the evidence where it takes us if
:25:05. > :25:10.it takes us to higher levels in the organisation, there are examples
:25:10. > :25:15.where we have done this, we expect to see action taken at those levels.
:25:15. > :25:20.So you expect it see action? Yes, and we will take action. Determine
:25:20. > :25:25.a case to answer at that level if that is appropriate.
:25:25. > :25:30.It took Andrea nearly two years to find out what went wrong. Even now
:25:30. > :25:35.she is still not happy about the way she's been treated. Durham
:25:35. > :25:38.Police apologised to Andrea, for failing to react when Chapman's car
:25:38. > :25:42.was caught on its cameras, they believe that forces need to change,
:25:42. > :25:46.that when things go wrong, the police should be more open.
:25:46. > :25:51.I think whenever a family is bereaved, there is a sense that
:25:51. > :25:56.something could have been done more to prevent it we are trying to very
:25:56. > :26:00.carefully move the culture of the organisation to one of openness.
:26:00. > :26:04.Where we say sorry, where we list and then we explain and then we
:26:04. > :26:08.show people that this is what we have learned.
:26:08. > :26:13.So, in Durham, they are changing the way that complaints are handled.
:26:14. > :26:17.Now officers may have to deal with their accuser, face-to-face.
:26:17. > :26:20.Panorama was given access to the very first time an officer was
:26:20. > :26:25.called in to explain himself to the woman he arrested.
:26:25. > :26:29.So, how does it feel to be here today? I'm nervous.
:26:29. > :26:34.Donna was arrested during a row with her neighbours, she think that
:26:34. > :26:39.the officer was heavy-handed. In my opinion I was arrested for no
:26:39. > :26:43.reason. Whilst being arrested I suffered injuries to my hands and
:26:43. > :26:47.thumb. Donna, I'm Gary Davidson.
:26:47. > :26:51.Donna wanted the police officer to answer for his actions, this is the
:26:51. > :26:54.first time she has seen him since he arrested her.
:26:55. > :26:58.The first person I see in the street is quite an aggressive
:26:58. > :27:01.female. When you walked in, you had a face
:27:01. > :27:05.like you wanted to make an arrest, straight away.
:27:05. > :27:10.I could see that your behaviour was difficult.
:27:11. > :27:16.The next thing I know, the cuffs are on, I am being led down the
:27:16. > :27:23.street. That made you angry? I'm in too much pain to be angry. Maybe
:27:23. > :27:27.you mistook my pain for aggression. Offen it is useful for the officer
:27:27. > :27:30.to listen to the victim in a non- threatening environment to what the
:27:30. > :27:39.person has to say, then for the person to listen to what was going
:27:39. > :27:45.on through the officer's mind. remember now. I might adopt a
:27:45. > :27:48.different set up the next time. I appreciate the conversation. I
:27:48. > :27:52.have learned, maybe you have learned.
:27:52. > :27:58.Donna did still not agree with the arrest, but she did have her say.
:27:58. > :28:01.This system is about being as open as possible when the public
:28:01. > :28:05.complaints, but Panorama found when the police themselves have a case
:28:05. > :28:09.to answer, the situation can be different. There is a back door
:28:09. > :28:12.available to officers who don't want to go through the misconduct
:28:12. > :28:16.proceedings. You simply retire or resign. Make
:28:16. > :28:21.the decision yourself, a way of avoiding justice.
:28:21. > :28:26.We have discovered just how many police officers do walk away.
:28:26. > :28:30.Our freedom of infection requests, show that over the last three years
:28:30. > :28:34.at least 489 officers have chosen this route.
:28:34. > :28:37.If they are allowed to leave the police without any stain on their
:28:37. > :28:42.character, then there is a chance that they will go and work in
:28:42. > :28:47.another force. That does happen. There is a judgment about do you
:28:47. > :28:51.want to wait for a long drawn-out disciplinary procedure, which you
:28:51. > :28:55.know is likely to end in that officer losing their job, or if