Nottinghamshire Chief Constable: I accept IPCC criticism

The Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police has pledged to “learn every lesson there is to learn” after a damning report on his force by the police watchdog

Feb 23, 2008
By Andrea Perry

The Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police has pledged to “learn every lesson there is to learn” after a damning report on his force by the police watchdog

Steve Green says he has accepted the IPCC’s report into events leading up to the deaths of John and Joan Stirland.

Mr Green continues that he is satisfied that the IPCC has made clear that neither Nottinghamshire nor Lincolnshire Police were responsible for the deaths of Mr and Mrs Stirland.

He says he accepts that there were organisational shortcomings which had created vulnerabilities at a time of extreme pressure and unprecedented demand on the force.

Mr Green said: “It weighs heavily on me that anything we might have done or failed to do should have allowed our service to drop below the standard we would want for our own families.

“I have no criticism of the report. As Chief Constable I accept it and will be absolutely relentless in following up recommendations and working closely with the IPCC to demonstrate improvements in the areas identified.

“Most of those issues have already been dealt with, following rigorous self-examination, and we have put in place robust procedures and improved our working practices in a number of key areas.”

Officers identified as having made errors of judgement will be dealt with by way of management advice. The report makes clear that none of those errors amounted to serious misconduct.

Mr Green adds “As Chief Constable, I take responsibility, but if you judge my officers I would ask you to do so in the context of the intense operational pressure they were under. 

“This was a year when CID officers were dealing with an unprecedented number of murders and injury shootings.  They were not best supported by some of the systems we had in place at that time – systems that have now been radically overhauled and improved.

T”hese officers did their absolute best but were working in circumstances which tested their professional skill and personal resilience to the extreme.”

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