Police Reform Act 2002

Duties to preserve evidence relating to complaints

1 (1) Where a complaint is made about the conduct of a chief officer, it shall be the duty of the police authority maintaining his force to secure that all such steps as are appropriate for the purposes of Part 2 of this Act are taken, both initially and from time to time after that, for obtaining and preserving evidence relating to the conduct complained of.

(2) Where—

(a) a complaint is made to a chief officer about the conduct of a person under his direction and control, or

(b) a chief officer becomes aware that a complaint about the conduct of a person under his direction or control has been made to the Commission or to a police authority,

the chief officer shall take all such steps as appear to him to be appropriate for the purposes of Part 2 of this Act for obtaining and preserving evidence relating to the conduct complained of.

(3) The chief officer’s duty under sub-paragraph (2) must be performed as soon as practicable after the complaint is made or, as the case may be, he becomes aware of it.

(4) After that, he shall be under a duty, until he is satisfied that it is no longer necessary to do so, to continue to take the steps from time to time appearing to him to be appropriate for the purposes of Part 2 of this Act for obtaining and preserving evidence relating to the conduct complained of.

(5) It shall be the duty of a police authority to comply with all such directions as may be given to it by the Commission in relation to the performance of its duty under sub-paragraph (1).

(6) It shall be the duty of a chief officer to take all such specific steps for obtaining or preserving evidence relating to any conduct that is the subject-matter of a complaint as he may be directed to take for the purposes of this paragraph by the police authority maintaining his force or by the Commission.