The Police Leadership Commission’s latest report confirms what many victims of police misconduct have experienced for years: poor leadership allows toxic cultures to flourish. From flawed promotion systems and inadequate leadership training to a culture that discourages officers from speaking out, the report exposes systemic failings that undermine public confidence. Meaningful reform requires stronger accountability, better leadership development and senior officers who remember that the police exist to serve the public—not stand apart from it.

Content Authenticity Statement

100% of this week’s blog post was generated by me, the human.

This week, I want to draw attention to the report published earlier this month by the Police Leadership Commission, which I would urge everyone with an interest in the structural causes of Police misconduct to read. 

Whilst the report praises “outstanding examples of leadership” within the profession it also admits that there are “systemic causes for concern about the consistency, capability and culture of leadership across the service…leadership in policing is not consistently of a high enough standard to provide confidence and trust in the attainment of the service which the public deserves”

Almost every page of this blog is a record and indictment of those leadership failures – for “bad apples” proliferate in an orchard which is not well tended, but in which misconduct is too often obscured or excused, and toxic characteristics are enabled by poor or complicit leaders. 

Police Misconduct Starts with Poor Leadership at the Top

The IOPC has received 107 referrals involving chief officers since it was founded in 2018, leading to 78 investigations of officers of the rank of Assistant Chief Constable or higher, frequently for such grievous matters as cronyism, nepotism, abuse of position for a sexual purpose and corruption.

Broken Promotion Systems Are Undermining Police Leadership

“Promotion processes to sergeant and inspector are broken…They rely on an out-of-date exam that only half of prospective sergeants and just over a third of prospective inspectors pass…More than a fifth of new sergeants and inspectors responding to our survey said they received no formal leadership training more than two years into their role.”

The Gemma Barnes Case Shows How Poor Police Supervision Enables Misconduct

A ‘perfect’ example of the lack of good leadership at lower levels of the Police Force can be provided by the case of my client Gemma Barnes, about which I wrote earlier this month and which is now attracting significant media attention. In that shocking case of “candid camera” the officers involved in toxic behaviour and abhorrent comments are being presided over by their sergeant like the King of Misrule; it is an atmosphere totally lacking in internal discipline or respect for the public. 

Police Whistleblowers Still Fear Speaking Out

The Report also draws attention to the ways in which Police leadership enables bad behaviour by failing to set the right examples and by failing to protect those who do speak out. All too often, keeping your mouth shut and looking the other way when colleagues misconduct themselves seems like the only sensible thing an officer can do. 

“We have encountered overwhelming evidence that police personnel at all levels, even people in senior positions, do not feel able to speak up against failures and misconduct for fear of negative repercussions.”

This is a depressingly familiar echo of Baroness Casey’s findings in her 2023 report on the culture of the Metropolitan Police, where she highlighted that those who speak up “learn the hard way that there are adverse consequences for themselves, their careers and for their teams.”

The Casey Review Reached the Same Conclusions About Police Culture

My own review of the Casey report can be found here. 

Police Leadership Training Falls Far Behind the British Army

One striking statistic which the current report highlights is that 15 years after leaving Sandhurst, a Colonel in the British Army will have undertaken 72 weeks of leadership development, compared with “2 or 3 weeks” for a Chief Superintendent in the Metropolitan Police.

Mandatory Leadership Training Should Be Required for Chief Officers

A key recommendation of the report which attempts to address that issue, though it may come as a surprise to many that this is not already an essential requirement, is that all chief officers, including chief constables, should be expected to complete an annual performance review and continuing professional development training (CPD), as is the norm in the legal and medical professions. 

As one Police contributor to the Report commented – 

“As an accredited strategic firearms commander or public gold commander… I’ve got very, very strict and set accreditation CPD that I need to do every single year. If I don’t do it, I do not maintain my operational accreditation. We do not take the same approach for leadership and whilst there are good courses offered by the College [of Policing], they are not mandated. There’s no check and balance.”

Should Senior Police Officers Be Recruited from Outside Policing?

Another key recommendation for change is “a targeted direct entry scheme” to bring in “proven leaders” from other professions, such as local government and community safety, into senior and executive police officer roles. 

Why External Leadership Could Improve Police Accountability

I wholeheartedly endorse this idea, as I believe it could be a significant antidote to the huge problem of pro-Police bias within the profession and lack of empathy for and understanding of the public, borne of senior officers being for decades ‘soldiers’ on the inside of the Police ‘castle’, looking out. 

The report essentially endorses this sentiment, although its authors express themselves in rather more bureaucratic terms – 

“Senior police leaders can too often share a narrow set of experiences and values, partly as a product of a traditional and restrictive career pathway. They are not always open to challenge and new ideas, or prepared to take considered risks that could improve services.” 

Police Must Remember the Public Is Not the Enemy

I will conclude my thoughts by referring back to that comparison between the training of Army officers and senior Police officers. It is quite right that the model of Army leadership be looked at for good examples of building best practice; but my own ‘key recommendation’ for the Policing profession would be that they bear at all times, front and centre in their thinking, the truth that they are not an army and the public is not the enemy. 

Rebuilding Public Trust Requires Stronger Police Accountability

If the first thing that Police leaders did in response to this report was to open their ears fully and honestly to public complaints and make examples of, rather than try to protect, officers who abuse their powers or treat people with disrespect – then they would be at once strengthening the efficacy and moral fibre of their profession and restoring its reputation in the eyes of the citizenry of which it is supposed to be a part, not a foreign body. 

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Contact the Expert Police Misconduct Solicitor

Iain Gould is a solicitor specialising in complaints, claims and civil actions against the Police. With over 30 years of experience and a national reputation, he has successfully sued all 43 police forces in England and Wales challenging abuse of power and securing rightful compensation