LONDON
The U.K. plans to open up police disciplinary hearings to the public, Home Secretary Theresa May has announced.
Speaking at the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners' event in Harrogate on Tuesday she said: "The integrity of the men and women who work in the police service of England and Wales is critical to public trust in policing.
"I want to ensure that the systems and processes that deal with misconduct by police officers are robust, independent and transparent to the public."
“I will consult on proposals to make it easier for police officers and staff to report misconduct and malpractice by their fellow officers. These proposals will include greater protections for whistleblowers to ensure that they are not subject to unfair disciplinary action, or other mistreatment by their force or colleagues,” she told the association.
The announcement by May came on the same day that the Independent Police Complaints Commission announced it would be investigating 10 police officers over the handling of the handling of allegations surrounding the organized sexual abuse of children in Rotherham which is believed to have begun in the 1990s.
- Sex abuse investigation
An estimated 1,400 children are believed to have been sexually abused, predominantly by gangs of British-Pakistani men, in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
The move also comes as police forces across the country face cuts to their budgets under government austerity measures.
It also follows public discontent amid a lack of perceived action on allegations of child sex abuse within the British and Westminster establishment as well as the "plebgate" affair where former parliamentary chief whip and Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell was forced to resign after police claimed he had called them "plebs".
In one poll released by British daily newspaper The Sunday mirror earlier this year one-in-four Britons said they had lost faith in the police force in the face of high-profile scandals.
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