Business


Nice but tough


29/11/2004

Softly spoken, petite and sensibly dressed Naseem Malik would seem a perfect fit for a 'respectable' post - say a middle ranking civil servant or perhaps a deputy headmistress. Instead the 37-year-old, Lancashire-born lawyer is in charge of one of the toughest project in the region - the bid to construct new machinery that will bring about independent, closer, scrutiny of the police.
The former Manchester Polytechnic student is now one of only two north west commissioners appointed by the new Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Students of police affairs hope this body, which began work in April, will banish the frequently scoffed-at practice of the police investigating the police.
Self-examination was the core of the old system run by the abolished Police Complaints Authority.
If the authority thought a complaint against officers was worth investigating, it would appoint a police team, sometimes made up of officers from the force under investigation, to get at the truth.
Thus a prisoner could complain about a pasting he got in the cells of police division X and his allegations would be probed by men from next door in police division Y. It was a system not exactly designed to fill the wary public with confidence.
Naseem hopes to change all this.
So what's new?
"The one big difference is that we have the power and the means conduct independent investigations in the more serious cases - where a death in custody has occurred, for example," she says.
"We have out own teams of investigators who can go in and coduct their own inquiry.
"In less serious cases a member of the commission could manage an investigation being conducted by an outside police team.
"Another important reform is that any third party who witnesses what he or she believes is a violation of police procedure can report the matter to the police or to us. Under the old system only the victim had the right to complain, and, in an effort to encourage people to contact us directly, we have approached race equality councils and other community groups to explain our role urging them to work with us.
"We will also keep a close eye on police work. We can't interfere with direction or control of a force, we coulldn't for example examine a force and call for more bobbies on the beat, but we could investigate our suspicions of improper procedures that affect the public."
The success of the new approach will clearly depend on police co-operation and good will and so far Naseem reports that senior officers are keen to make the system work.
Racism will obviously be an issue and complaints involving something called "aggravated racism" will be a subject for commissioner investigation.
If, for example, it was alleged an officer had shoved a suspect into a wall, this would not merit an automatic report to the commission, but if the alleged assault was raciosts in nature, any chief constable is obliged to refer the matter to the commission for investigation.
The Manchester commission team are already investigating allegations of rascist e-mails sent between officers.
Does Naseem think the forces she oversees - Cheshire, Cumbria and Greater Manchester - are institutionally racists?
The question is greeted with a nervous silence. Eventually comes the reply: "I think there will be individuals whose attitudes towards black and ethnic minority communities fall short of what the commission will judge as acceptable behaviour."
How about the behaviour of Greater Manchester and Cheshire officers filmed in the The Secret Policeman documentary revealing they could kill a "Paki" and donning Ku Klux Klan garb?
"I did see the film but it is difficult for me to give a detailed account as it is at this time the subject of a commission investigation. But of course I found the behaviour portrayed totally unacceptable."
Nassem's Pakisani-born father works in urban regeration and she too cut her legal an administrative teeth in local government,.
After a degree in applied sociology she took her lawyers' exams and qualified as a solicitor.
She ended up as head of legal service for Knowsley council on Merseyside and then saw the job ad' for the commssioion.
"I was looking for a move and it sounded exciting . It was a brand new organisation and it is a challenge to be in at the very beginning and to drive progress."
But how will a young, Asian woman, stand up to hard-bitten police professionals who know every trick of the investigator's trade?"
Says Naseem: "Don't mistake niceness for weakness. When it is needed I am more than able to make my voice heard."
So rogue coppers watch out - Naseem's about!


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