Page 6 of Little Children

‘Yep – and leave it to her to sort out.’

‘What about the IOPC?’ Penn asked.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct was a body separate from the police which investigated the most serious complaints and conduct matters. Police forces were required to refer the most serious cases their way even if there was no complainant. Normally such cases were incidents where any police action resulted in members of the public being badly injured or even dying in custody. Police could also choose to refer cases themselves, and in the last year, seven thousand cases had been sent to the IOPC.

‘We don’t have a case yet. The chief has only anonymous tips. She needs more before referring it across,’ Kim answered.

‘Did Woody give no idea what we might be looking for?’ Stacey asked. ‘There’s a good distance to travel between one and three.’

Stacey was referring to the three distinct categories of allegations: police complaints made by the public; conduct matters raised internally; and ones where police actions appeared to have resulted in death or serious injury, assaults, sex offences or corruption.

‘There were over fifty thousand public complaints against the police last year,’ Penn offered.

‘Given there’s one hundred and seventy-one thousand police officers in the UK, that number ain’t so great,’ Bryant observed, adding a sachet of sugar to his cuppa.

Kim moved the container out of his reach.

‘So, almost a third of all police had a complaint made against them?’ Stacey asked, wide-eyed.

‘Or some officers had two,’ Bryant said.

‘Over a hundred cops were found guilty of criminal offences last year,’ Penn added.

‘Okay, guys, enough,’ Kim said, holding up her hand.

Unfortunately, police misconduct was a hot topic at the minute. The public would never forget how police officer Wayne Couzens had kidnapped Sarah Everard and murdered her. They were also unlikely to forget the damning report stating the Metropolitan Police Force was ‘institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic’. Whether it was only the Met or not, most people tarred all police forces with the same brush, and much as it pained her to admit it, her profession did harbour its fair share of bad apples.

But were any of them working out of Blackpool station? And what was the best way of finding that out? she wondered.

‘We need a strategy,’ Kim said, finishing her coffee. ‘We’re gonna need to be approachable and non-threatening. We’ve got more chance of seeing something if we act it up a bit.’ She turned to Bryant. ‘You don’t like me very much.’

‘And here was me thinking I covered it up well,’ he quipped.

‘You’re a bit disillusioned, craving retirement and you don’t much like taking instruction from a woman. If there are any Neanderthals on the team, they’ll gravitate towards you.’

‘I’m basically a stereotype.’

‘Yes.’

‘Okay.’

She turned to the constable. ‘Stace, I want you to be naïve and a bit overwhelmed. I want your innocence and vulnerability to elicit trust. People will assume you’re too scared to be any danger.’

‘Got it, boss,’ she said with a smile.

‘Penn, you’re the hardest, cos…’

‘Jeez, thanks, guv,’ Bryant interrupted.

She ignored him. ‘I need you to be a bit ruthless and pretty ambitious. Make people think you’ll do anything to climb that ladder. I know I’m asking you to play completely against type.’

He was smiling as though relishing the challenge. A previous team member could have pulled off that one with very little effort. Unfortunately, Kevin Dawson was no longer with them, but she still thought about him often.

‘Okay, new team dynamics sorted. We need?—’

Bryant sighed heavily and rolled his eyes.

‘Excuse me?’ Kim snapped.