Express & Star

Police vow to deal with complaints faster

West Midlands Police is the worst force in the country when it comes to recording complaints against officers in a timely manner.

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According to new figures the force recorded 501 complaints from members of the public in 2018-19, a fall of 36 per cent on the previous year.

However, just over a quarter (26 per cent) of the complaints were recorded within the expected period of 10 days – way below the national average of around 90 per cent.

The figures were revealed in a report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which looks at how forces deal with allegations against officers.

Staffordshire Police recorded 15 per cent more complaints over the past year than in 2017-18, while the force also received 1,008 allegations, a spike of 17 per cent on the previous year.

West Mercia Police saw a five per cent drop in allegations, which fell to 839, although the number of complaints recorded increased by five per cent.

Both forces fared far better than West Midlands Police when it came to logging complaints within 10 days, with Staffordshire hitting 82 per cent and West Mercia recording 92 per cent.

Whilst the average number of days to finalise complaints remains slightly higher than our Most Similar Force (MSF) at 121 days compared to 112 days, this represents a marked improvement compared to the same period last year (167 days) (See Figure 2 below).

Complaints against officers include

WMP: The number of allegations recorded since April 2019 currently stands at 278. Since 2016/17, there has been a year on year reduction in this area and this reduction is expected to continue for 2019/20

For the first time in a decade police forces in England and Wales are handling more complaints through local resolution rather than using lengthy and complex investigations, data released by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) today shows.

The most common type of allegation made in a complaint remains ‘other neglect or failure in duty’ category, such as how officers responded to or investigated incidents. These allegations accounted for 41% of all the allegations recorded in 2018/19; continuing a rise seen in the two previous reports. This year the number of allegations per 1,000 employees fell from 274 to 264.

Regional Director for the Midlands, Derrick Campbell, said: “The majority of Midlands forces now handle more complaints through local resolution, rather than a formal investigation. We believe this can help settle lower level complaints in a more timely, reasonable and proportionate way.

“We speak regularly with police forces and where issues are identified in the way they deal with complaints we discuss the causes and solutions, and work with them to make improvements. For instance we have provided advice and supported West Midlands Police to help them improve service, quality and timeliness of complaint handling generally, and particularly in relation to the completion of local investigations and recording of complaints.

“We also contributed to a technical workshop at West Mercia and Warwickshire Police, focusing on recording decisions and applying the local resolution test.

“Sharing best practice is another important function we carry out. We have noted the performance benefits at forces such as Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, which have staff specifically responsible for local resolutions and service recovery.

“It can be difficult to identify national trends, but the data informs our work with individual Midlands forces to help bring about improvements to the service received by complainants. We will continue to be effective in our monitoring and to hold forces accountable for their performance when necessary.”

The statistics show:

· Recorded complaints have gone down by 2% nationally since 2017/18, from 31,671 to 31,097. The overall number of complaints being recorded nationally has reduced by 16% since 2014/15

· Local resolution is now the most frequent way forces handle allegations. Local resolution is used in 48% of allegations, compared to 42% in 2017/18 and 2016/17

· The time taken by forces when using this method is 72 days, compared to 158 days to complete a local investigation

· The proportion of local resolution appeals handled by police forces that are upheld has stayed stable at 16%. Although the IOPC is upholding more local resolution appeals, these only account for 70 of the 2,486 local resolution appeals completed in 2018/19

· The total number of appeals concerning the non-recording of a complaint has reduced by 9%, while the percentage of upheld non-recording appeals has stayed constant at 36%

· The proportion of complaint investigations where an officer is formally investigated for alleged misconduct or criminal activity has reduced from 13% to 10%

· The number of appeals received by the IOPC following a local investigation dropped by 22%, while the proportion of those upheld has remained constant at 38%.

The report also highlights initiatives by forces to deliver a good service in the initial handling of a complaint. For example:

· At Cheshire Constabulary, dedicated complaints managers make recording decisions within ten working days in 97% of complaint cases. In 2018/19, we upheld only two appeals against complaints not being recorded by this force.

· Having missed a target of 80% in four of the previous five years to record complaints within 10 working days, the Metropolitan Police Service reviewed its processes and introduced a new database, resulting in 90% of complaints being recorded within 10 days. The force has also seen a decrease year on year in the number of non-recording appeals received – from 424 in 2013/14 to 208 in 2018/19, while the proportion of these appeals upheld by us reduced from 40% (168) in 2013/14 to 28% (58) in 2018/19.

· In October 2018 Greater Manchester Police set up a new Assessment Team to record complaints and decide on initial actions. Their timeliness for recording complaints within ten days increased from 55% in 2017/18 to 98% in the final quarter of 2018/19.

West Mercia has seen a 5% drop in complaint allegations made against police officers in the last year.

A report out today from the Independent Office for Police Conduct shows 839 allegations were made in 2018/19, down from 886 the previous year.

While fewer allegations of complaint were made against the force, the number of complaints that were actually recorded went up by 4%, showing an improvement in recording practices.

West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion said: “This report shows the improving picture in West Mercia. The force is seeing fewer complaints, despite demand on police nationwide remaining high. In West Mercia, I have invested significantly in additional police officers and resources like body worn video. It is clear these are having a positive impact on the service our communities are receiving. I will continue to hold the force to account to ensure West Mercia Police continues to offer the best possible service to our communities”.

Assistant Chief Constable Martin Evans said: “Much of our work involves engaging with people at incredibly difficult and challenging times in their life and we pride ourselves in giving them a good service. We are pleased this has been evidenced in these figures, which show a reduction in complaints, and by a recent survey which showed that 85% of people in our communities have confidence in our force, which is higher than the average of other similar forces.

“On the occasions where the conduct of an officer or member of staff falls short of the high standards we expect you can expect us to take appropriate and firm action. We are also dedicated to learning from such incidents and continuously improving our service.”