THE much criticised South Yorkshire Police force has been praised for its approach to outside scrutiny and willingness to be self critical.

It comes in the the latest annual report of the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Independent Ethics Panel.

During that period the panel has undertaken a number of pieces of work around areas of policing activity in which policy or practice raises ethical questions and where these areas have potential to arouse public concern.

Panel chairman Andrew Lockley said: “The panel has been encouraged in all the projects we have undertaken by the force’s willingness to be open.

“Despite the legacy issues that face the force, and the burden carried by those past events, the force that we are working with today is unrecognisable from the headlines generated by investigations into past failures.

“We see a force that is willing to be self-critical and that welcomes outside scrutiny.”

During the year the IEP has begun to monitor the use of force, specifically around the use of tasers.

Last year South Yorkshire officers used taser on 102 occasions, which is below the national average.

The use of stop and search powers has also been reviewed and the figures show a reduction in the number of stop and searches carried out from 22,000 in 2013 to just 2,580 in 2016.