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IPCC publishes police complaint statistics for 2009/10

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has published information from the police complaints system for 2009/10.

Last year 33,854 complaints about the police in England and Wales were recorded - an 8% increase on the previous year. The most common aspects of policing that people complained about remained the same as in previous years, with nearly 50% of allegations about incivility or neglecting duties - commonly these allegations regard officers being rude or late.

· There were 58,399 allegations recorded in 2009/10, up 8% from the previous year.

· There were 7,348 allegations of assault, 14,983 allegations of neglect or failure and 11,576 allegations of incivility.

· Compared to the previous years the biggest rises in allegations were for improper disclosure of information (15%), other neglect or failure in duty (15%), traffic irregularity (14%) and oppressive conduct or harassment (14%)

· There were 1531 allegations of discriminatory behaviour, down 1% from the previous year.

· Most complainants were white (63%), aged between 40 and 49 (21%), and male (64%)

· It takes on average 90 working days to finalise a complaint case, up five days from the previous year.

· 31,758 complaint cases were finalised during 2009/2010, up 6%.

· There were 4,309 valid appeals completed by the IPCC, up 21%, of which 1,252 (29%) were upheld.

IPCC Interim Chair Len Jackson, said:

"Last year there was a further increase in the number of people complaining about the police. Prior to the introduction of the IPCC in 2004, the number of people complaining was falling and later research showed only 10% of people who felt like complaining actually did. I believe improved confidence and access has encouraged those who previously were not inclined to complain that making a complaint is worthwhile.

"The number of ‘rude and late’ complaints highlights the standards expected of the police service and the need to improve how they interact with the public. However, while some aspects can be improved without cost, such as through better leadership, smaller police budgets will present a challenge around levels of service and public expectation. This will require forces to develop an open dialogue with the public.”

This year the IPCC has introduced a new set of ‘key indicators’ to help identify how well complaints are being handled. The figures include information about the length of time it takes for complaints to be recorded and allegations completed by different types of investigations.

This is initially a nationwide overview but later this year the information will also be published about individual forces quarterly.

Len Jackson, said:

"We have worked with police forces to develop key indicators to help objectively judge how complaints are being handled. We will use them to drive improvements to the complaints system, such as narrowing the extremes in the length of time it takes to finalise an investigation and the number of appeals made.

"The work we are doing with forces driven by the indicators to improve their performance, and legislative measures based on our proposals for a simpler system, will lead to a complaints system more in line with the public’s expectations.”

As in previous years the number of allegations substantiated - where misconduct has been proven - has remained at 10%. Later this year when the 2010/11 complaints statistics are published they will also include the number of ‘upheld’ complaints, which is a category created by the revised statutory guidance the IPCC issued last year.

This shifts the focus of the complaints system from only examining whether misconduct is proven, to one that also recognises that an officer does not have to have done something wrong for a member of the public to have a bad experience.

As well as the statutory guidance the IPCC made proposals to the Home Office to alleviate frustrations a previous review of the system had identified. As a result the Policing Reform and Social Responsibility Bill now includes measures to:

· Widen the definition of a complaint so that the public can complain through one system whether the matter concerns the conduct of an officer, service failure or direction and control.

· Simplify how forces can dispense or discontinue with a complaint.

· Making the grounds on which a complainant can appeal more straightforward.

IPCC publishes police complaint statistics for 2009/10

ENDS

Notes to editors:

A copy of the full national report can be found here: http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/Pages/stats.aspx

Should you have any queries regarding the content of the report please contact Neil Coyte IPCC Press Office on 020 7166 3978.