This view has consistently been advanced by members of the fiscal service and police authority members. 11.17 One issue has however been subject of repeated mention and that is the periodic reluctance of some police officers to provide evidence against colleagues, or to bring breaches of integrity to notice through the formal chain of command. There was however a frequently held view that the younger generation of police officers were less reticent in this respect. HMIC has briefly considered how this favourable trend can be strengthened and encouraged. There has been a change in police culture over recent years.
Officers are now more willing to speak out if anything improper happens.
Deputy Chief Constable 11.18 HMIC also considered how the parallel issue of management and supervisory responsibility could be addressed. Very few job descriptions for managing and supervisory ranks in the Scottish Police Service contain a specific requirement to uphold and ensure high professional and ethical standards among subordinates. It could of course be said that this was too obvious for words but HMIC was nevertheless unable to find any recent specific example of formal action taken against a senior manager purely on account of failure to deliver high standards within an area of command. Examples of action against failing front line supervisors, particularly sergeants, were easier to find. One of the problems with police officers as witnesses is that they usually claim that everything was done perfectly.