Nearly 200 former police officers and staff members now work at the independent watchdog that is supposed to monitor their old forces, data seen by openDemocracy reveals.
The majority of the 192 ex-police officers and ‘civilians’ – meaning other non-frontline police workers – are concentrated in the operations teams that handles investigations into alleged police misconduct and has the power to recommend sanctions.
According to the IOPC’s most recent staff diversity report, a quarter of staff (136 out of 544) in the IOPC’s two operations divisions previously held roles in the police force, either as officers or police civilians. One of the divisions was tasked with investigating the actions of police in the wake of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.
