Express & Star

Revealed: How it can take 250 DAYS to investigate West Midlands Police misconduct claims

Conducting probes into alleged police misconduct in the West Midlands takes the force an average of 250 days to complete, new figures have revealed.

Published
David Jamieson, the West Midlands police and crime commissioner

The timescale has been questioned by PCC David Jamieson, who said it has spiked since 2012 - when it took around 50 days to complete an investigation. Bosses say this is down to a number of factors including the increased culture of scrutiny of police actions in light of Hillsborough.

Police chiefs blamed the rise on factors including 'a small number of complex cases that...skewed the average'.

At a meeting on Tuesday Mr Jamieson highlighted the figures from the force's Professional Standards Department.

He said: "It does look as if from 2012 we've gone from around 50 days on average to 250 days."

Deputy chief constable Louisa Rolfe said: "We've had a very small number of complex cases that will have skewed the average length of time to resolve a complaint. We're way off at the moment but have taken substantial steps to address it.

"We're out of step with some forces but not the most similar forces."

Steps are being taken to try to bring that average time down, according to DCC Rolfe, including 'ensuring we have a robust assessment of complaints at the outset so we don't push too many into the system'.

A report for the meeting puts the rise down to a combination of factors.

These include: 'staffing reductions; increased culture of scrutiny of police actions in light of Hillsborough, Pitchford etc; changes to regulation which have affected the back end of the process; location moves which have impacted upon and delayed work; several statistically outlying cases that skew the total average; sub judice cases'.

Chief Constable Dave Thompson said the current police complaints procedure is 'bureaucratic beyond belief and doesn't incentivise people to say sorry quickly'.

According to the report for the Strategic Policing and Crime Board meeting, West Midlands Police has 'received fewer allegations than our Most Similar Forces (MSF) and 18 per cent less than the national force average across the last three years, showing that we remain consistent as a force, despite austerity and change'.

The report continues: "WMP consistently out-perform our most similar forces in this regard and are one of the least complained about forces nationally.

"The IPCC have offered praise of the force as, unlike other forces, WMP maintains an accurate record of all service recovered on the same system as complaints and conduct."

The top five allegations - of the 1,044 recorded between April 1 this year and August 31 - are other neglect/ failure of duty which saw 317 complaints ; incivility, intolerance, impoliteness with 133; other assault with 111; oppressive conduct or harassment 74 and lack of fairness and impartiality with 68.

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