Police Complaints
In 1985 Clothier was appointed to chair the Police Complaints Authority, commanding a dignified office in Whitehall and bringing it under the authority of the Home Affairs Select Committee. His term as Chairman of the Authority was a turbulent one, and he often earned the hosility of both the complainants and the police.
He noted that the Metropolitan Police received more complaints than any other force in the country and that it was also least inclined to cooperate with the Authority. Clothier sought to improve transparency and pressed for powers to dismiss unsuitable officers and to prevent officers under investigation from being able to resign with a full pension on health grounds. Revelations of miscarriages of justice caused anger, and the Police Federation passed votes of no-confidence in the Authority and himself as Chairman on four occasions. Clothier reflected that he 'would be a lot more worried if they passed a vote of confidence. It might suggest that some of the accusations that we work hand in glove with the police are true.' Clothier was indeed accused of working hand in glove with the police. When the police used, as Clothier admitted, excessive force to break up a hippy peace convoy near Stonehenge, he did not recommend that a single disciplinary charge be brought against the 1,363 officers involved. When the police forcibly broke up a student demonstration in Manchester in 1985 and 100 complaints were received, officers were not required by the Authority to name colleagues who had behaved improperly. Clothier commented that 'failure to denounce one's friends and relations has never been a subject for discipline in any civilised body of people'.
Clothier followed his term at the Police Complaints Authority with appointments to the Senior Salaries Review Body from 1989 to 1995, as Vice-President of the Interception of Communications Tribunal between 1986 and 1996 and Chairman of the Committee on Ethics of Gene Therapy between 1990 and 1992. He also chaired two commissions on the governance of Jersey, one concerning policing and other concerning the constitution.
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