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Appealing against the police investigation into your complaint

If you have made a complaint to the police and they investigate, the police should write to you to tell you:

how the complaint will be investigated
what co-operation they require from you
how a decision will be reached
what action will be taken at the end of the investigation

The police should also tell you about progress during the investigation. At the end of the investigation the police should send you a letter or report which:

gives details about the findings of the investigation
states whether or not they plan to take any action as a result of the investigation
states what that action will be
tells you about your right to appeal to the IPCC

You can appeal to the IPCC about the outcome of an investigation if:

you have not received enough information about the findings of the investigation or what action the police plan to take
you disagree with the findings of the investigation
you disagree with the action the police plan to take as a result of the investigation

If you have not received enough information about the findings of the investigation, in many cases the police can give you this by sending you a copy of the investigating officer’s report.

You may disagree with the findings of the investigation because:

some witnesses you consider important were not traced and interviewed
you do not think that the police properly understood what your complaint was about
you do not think that some parts of your complaint were investigated
you do not think that the evidence the police have gathered supports the conclusions they have reached

You may disagree with the action the police plan to take as a result of the investigation because:

you do not think the police have done enough to prevent the same thing happening again
you think the action the police have said they will take against the person you complained about is not right

Additional rights of appeal

As of 1 December 2008 some changes were put in place to the way in which the police deal with complaints against officers. If you made your complaint on or after 1 December 2008 you will have the following additional rights of appeal after your complaint has been investigated:

you disagree with the decision that the police have made whether an officer you complained about has a case to answer for misconduct or gross misconduct. For example:
the police have said an officer has no case to answer but you think they have a case to answer for misconduct
the police have said an officer has a case to answer for misconduct but you think they have a case to answer for gross misconduct
you disagree with a decision the police have made not to refer your complaint to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for it to consider criminal prosecution

You cannot appeal to the IPCC if the investigation into your complaint has been managed or independently carried out by the IPCC.

Appeal timescales

The IPCC must receive your appeal within 28 days of the date of the letter you have received from the police telling you about the outcome of the investigation. This includes the time your appeal spends in the post.

If you do not send your appeal to the IPCC within 28 days, the IPCC does not have to consider your appeal. The IPCC may be able to extend this time period if:

you have very special circumstances and you can fully explain your reasons for asking for an extension

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Appealing against the police investigation into your complaint

Additional rights of appeal

Appeal timescales

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