Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?

Allan McLeod asks me what is my opinion of the police investigating the police.

This problem is an ancient one. In the First century, Juvenal wrote the words heading this article. They translate as "But who is to guard the Guards themselves?"

The question can be put another way. Can we trust the police to properly police themselves? If the answer is no, what alternative can be proposed? It also falls to be considered in the context of other organisations that impinge on our lives. For example plumbers, builders, gas fitters, travel agents, lawyers, nurses, doctors, dentists, vets, the armed forces and many others have their own organisations policing their members’ activities. The police are not unique in this respect.

The obvious reason that it is acceptable, if not encouraged, for an organisation or official body to police itself and its members is that it is best placed to understand the question being asked. An outsider could fail to grasp the point and have the wool pulled over his eyes. If I have an engineering problem, I ask an engineer for an opinion and not a lawyer or doctor. If I want to know if a doctor has acted properly, I ask another doctor and not a minister or vet.

If it is accepted that the person best placed to investigate is one of a similar type, then the next question is why should the rest of us trust that decision? In the end, that is the nub of the matter. Are they going to close ranks and protect their own? It has ultimately to be a matter of trust.

However it is not one sided. If the membership of any organisation believes that the fact of membership is of some value or benefit to them, it is in their own interests to maintain some sort of standard. If that involves searching for, and removing, the rotten apples before the whole barrel is contaminated, then it is very much in their interests to do so. If they do not, their collective value is diminished. This is what happens. Professionals are struck off the register. Poor workmen are removed from the trade organisation. In this regard the police are no different to anyone else.

Some organisations, including the police, have built into the system a further safeguard of an independent element. As far as the police are concerned this is the Procurator Fiscal and the Police Board. If a police officer is suspected of committing a crime in the course of his duties, that is reported, not to the local fiscal who may know him, but to the Area fiscal who reports his enquiry to the Lord Advocate. If it is not a criminal matter, the Police Board have a right, and a duty, to call for a report from the Chief Constable, who must comply, as has happened in the investigation of the death of Mr McLeod’s nephew. It is for the Board to set the parameters of the enquiry and ensure they are adhered to.

No system designed by man to deal with the affairs of man can be perfect. I am not aware of any better system for enquiring into police conduct.

To finish on a personal note to the driver from the Stornoway ferry who forced me off the road recently. Mirror- signal- manoeuvre is meant to be carried out in that order and no other. Secondly, you were unable to see past the lorry as you were dangerously close to its tail. Thirdly I did not stop to admire the view but because my vehicle was damaged by your bad driving. It is a crime to fail to stop. You have been reported to the police. I am not available to defend you. There are many good driving instructors available to teach you how to drive.