The controversial system in Northern Ireland means police officers cannot be prevented from retiring if under investigation unless they have been suspended which, in the main, they are not.
Although retirement may save some from further misconduct proceedings which could have led to dismissal, it does not impact on any officer facing criminal charges.
The practice has drawn heavy criticism as many officers served with notice of a PSNI complaint immediately or shortly thereafter go on sick leave and thereafter retire.
Numerous cases of alleged misconduct have come to a disappointing conclusion for victims and a trend is obvious.
The high-profile Katie Simpson murder case sparked an exodus of officers with over half those cited by the Ombudsman over the course of two police investigations to retire.
The first Ombudsman probe cited six officers for misconduct of which one was cleared and of the remainder, three were subject to internal disciplinary proceedings while the other two retired during the investigation.
However, following this more complaints were made leading to a second tranche of Ombudsman enquiries.
To date this involves seven officers of which five have since retired.
This brings the total to seven out of 12 cited officers who have been permitted to walk away in what was arguably one of the worst handled police investigations in many years.
A response to a Freedom of Information request to the Ombudsman seeking the number of officers who retired while under investigation initially advised: “We do not hold the information falling within the scope of the request.”
As this was blatantly unfeasible the response was challenged and following an internal review the Ombudsman switched position, stating the information was in fact held but: “It is not in a readily accessible, centralised or reportable format … Locating, retrieving and extracting the information would require a manual review of a significant volume of files across multiple sources.”
Due to this, the request was refused having been deemed too expensive to answer.
An offer to pay the excess costs up front was not responded to and a complaint is currently under consideration of the Information Commissioner.
Separately the Minister for Justice has confirmed an amendment is being sought to existing legislation to enable former officer misconduct proceedings to be brought and concluded. The provision will address concerns raised where officers have resigned/retired and have, as a result, avoided disciplinary proceedings.
The move will bring Northern Ireland into alignment with England and Wales.
