Watchdog: PSNI could clear even more crime with informal disposals

In 2015 the Criminal Justice Inspectorate for NI (CJINI) reported that since discretionary disposals were introduced as an alternative to prosecution in 2010, higher numbers of low level offences had been dealt with using them than was anticipated.

It also found that in some cases their use was beyond the scope that was intended, and as a result it recommended that the PSNI and Public Prosecution Service (PPS) review their management of the issue. Now the CJINI has published a follow up report on how the PSNI has progressed.

“The use of discretion by police officers isn’t easy to do but it is vital they get it right,” said Jacqui Durkin, Chief Inspector of CJINI. “How and when police officers use discretion has been brought to the public’s attention, possibly like never before during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The use of discretion and different types of penalty notices to deal with minor offences without the need for court proceedings is an important part of the criminal justice system.  Almost half the cases in our courts are less serious offences. “However, exercising discretion requires police officers to act with integrity and use their professional judgment.”

 The 2015 report focused on Penalty Notices for Disorder and Discretionary Disposals, the latter of which were replaced by Community Resolution Notices in 2016, as what CJINI said was “a prompt, tailored solution that were intended to improve services to victims and encourage perpetrators not to reoffend”. 

Inspectors found that significant progress has been made with 10 out of the 11 recommendations made in 2015. 

However, the Chief Inspector said the CJINI had found the new PSNI-PPS oversight Quality Assurance Panel “did not review cases” where a Penalty Notice for Disorder or Community Resolution Notice could have been issued instead of a file being sent to the PPS for prosecution. “We believe the PSNI needs to monitor and have effective arrangements in place to identify where discretion could have been applied but wasn’t,” she said. 

These are areas the PSNI and PPS should consider including within the work of the Quality Assurance Panel as decisions made by the PPS can clearly result in very different outcomes for offenders - once a PPS file is submitted, it can’t be returned to police, she added. 

Former Assistant Chief Constable Alan McQuillan commended the PSNI for its progress. ”Eighty percent of crime are low level offences such as drunk and disorderly, assault or public order offences,” he said. “It is entirely appropriate to resolve these with verbal warnings, fixed penalty notices or referral to drug rehabilitation or social services, in cases involving children. This frees resources up to focus on serious crime such as rape, serious assault or major burglaries.”

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