Police database

For the past year I have been campaigning for the setting up of a national database which will seek to record adverse findings against police officers working throughout England and Wales.

This database would be designed to provide criminal practitioners with hereto unavailable information about misconduct.

The relevance of this cannot be underestimated, as it would clearly assist criminal practitioners in being able to challenge the reliability of a particular police officer's evidence.As a civil liberties lawyer, I often challenge police officers' impropriety.

On many occasions I have found it almost impossible to obtain information about whether the police officer involved has in fact had any allegation of malpractice made against him, to thereby support my client's case.

The importance of this information was seen in another case in which I was involved namely R v Malik (Archbold December 1999) in which the Lord Chief Justice accepted that cross-examination of a police officer would be allowed if the officer's credibility was a material fact and there was any previous misconduct on which cross-examination could occur.In light of this, I feel there is a justification for the setting up of an intelligence service which would greatly assist in the delivery of justice.In principle, the database would look to provide the following information on officers:l Any misconduct that had been shown to exist in a criminal hearings;l Any misconduct that had been shown to exist in civil hearings;l Any disciplinary findings; andl Details of any cases going to the Court of Appeal which have been overturned due to allegations of impropriety.If other practitioners are in agreement with me, or against me, I would like to hear from them so that their views can be forwarded on to the Home Office.

Chaman Salhan, Salhan & Company, Birmingham