Complaints against Thames Valley Police increase (From Bucks Free Press)

Complaints against Thames Valley Police increase

10:57am Thursday 24th February 2011 in News By Simon Farr

Complaints against Thames Valley Police increase

COMPLAINTS made against Thames Valley Police shot up 23 per cent last year, figures reveal today.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said 1,167 complaints were made against officers from the force in 2009/10, compared to the 947 recorded in the 2008/09 period.

A single complaint can comprise of a number of allegations. The total number of allegations made against TVP was 2,183 - up 15 per cent on the previous period.

The main allegations recorded against the force centred around neglect or failure in duty and incivility. The IPCC said this is otherwise known as “rude and late”.

Mike Franklin IPCC commissioner for the south east believes an increased public awareness about the police complaints procedure may be behind the rise - but he has urged the force to learn from its mistakes.

He said: “TVP has seen a higher than usual rise in complaints against officers and this is something that it needs to look carefully at and understand the reasons why.

“Although it may at first glance seem to be bad news for the force, I believe that part of the reason for the increase is improved access to and confidence in the complaints system.

“Prior to the introduction of the IPCC in 2004, the number of people complaining was falling and later research showed only 10 per cent of people who felt like complaining actually did.

"The IPCC and the police are working hard to make sure members of the public who are not satisfied with the service know how to feed that back to police.”

The report in full.

TVP Dept Ch Con Francis Habgood said: "Thames Valley Police as a force can not continue to improve the standard of service we provide to our communities if people do not let us know when they are unhappy.

“Police officers are regularly placed in dangerous and highly stressful situations while keeping our communities safe.

"The challenge for these officers is to maintain the high standards of professionalism and service expected by members of the public while carrying out their duties.

"Reports of this nature allow us to look at what areas we are not delivering the service our communities expect and address any concerns this raises.”

Nationally the figures show 33,854 people complained about the police in England and Wales last year - an eight per cent increase on the previous 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 how long different types of investigations take.

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