November 30, 2004: Police Complaints and Discipline

The latest - and last - Bulletin on Police Complaints and Discipline has been published by the Home Office. In future the collection and publication of complaints and discipline data will be the responsibility of the new Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The Bulletin deals with complaints, breaches of conduct and discipline charges against police officers in England and Wales for the period 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2004. (Complaints against civilian staff and traffic wardens are not included.) During the period April 2003 to March 2004, 15,885 cases of complaint were received by police forces. This is a rise of 4 per cent over the previous year. Since 1999/00 this is the first year that complaint cases have risen.

The Bulletin deals next with complaints received and the outcome of completed complaints. It also deals with officers convicted of criminal offences and disciplinary charges brought against officers. Cases received since 1 April 1999 have been processed under new misconduct procedures. Those cases received prior to April 1999 are still subject to the old disciplinary code.

Key points from the Bulletin:

• The police received 15,885 cases of complaint in year ending March 2004, a 4% rise over the previous twelve months. They represented 23,849 individual items of complaint.
• During the year to March 2004, 69 per cent of individual complaints dealt with were informally resolved, withdrawn or dispensed with.
• A total of 7,761 individual complaints required investigations in the 12 months to March 2004, an increase of 7 per cent over the previous 12 months.
• A total of 961 complaints were substantiated in the 12 months to March 2004, 2 per cent more than the previous year. Over half involved a failure in duty and around a fifth concerned oppressive behaviour.
• Disciplinary/misconduct allegations were proved against 1,545 officers in the 12 months to March 2004. For 160 of these officers charges related to complaints from members of the public. As a result of disciplinary/misconduct allegations, 95 officers were dismissed or required to resign, a decrease of 17 per cent over the previous year.