Police Complaints Authority information
The Police Complaints Authority (PCA) replaced the Police Complaints Board on 29 April 1985. It was created under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 as a result of concerns following Lord Scarman's report on The Brixton Disturbances (1981) and pressure from the Board and the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice. Its powers were amended by the Police Act 1996.
The PCA had much more limited powers than the IPCC. The Authority could:
- supervise police investigations into the most serious complaints against police officers;
- supervise police investigations into serious matters such as deaths in custody or fatal road traffic incidents, but only if the police service voluntarily referred the incident; and
- review all fully-investigated complaints against police officers and decide whether the officers should face a misconduct hearing. There was no appeal against the PCA's final decision, although in the latter two years it did send some complainants a provisional decision and invite submissions before finally deciding the outcome.
In 2002/3 the PCA accepted 447 complaint cases for supervision and also supervised 133 voluntary referrals of serious incidents. The PCA took the misconduct decisions in 3,547 fully-investigated cases.
For further information please see:
PCA Press release archive
An archive of the PCA's press releases from 1997 to 2004 is held by the Government News Network, under historical departments
Government News Network Historical departments
PCA reports
- The Police Complaints Authority paper 'Suicide by Cop' examines 22 police shooting incidents between 1998 and 2001, to assess the likelihood of suicidal motivation in each of these cases. Around half of the shootings examined have some evidence indicating a suicidal motive in those shot. 30 pages, first published 2002.
- Policing Acute Behavioural Disturbance (pdf 47.8k)
PCA Annual reports
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