Survey reveals ‘startling’ level of complaints against police
originally published by:
The Independent
2nd September 2010
More than 2,000 police officers had at least three complaints made against them by members of the public over the past year, according to figures released today.
A BBC survey of UK forces showed 2,073 officers were subject to three or more allegations them during 2009/10. Most complaints were about rudeness, assault or failure of duty, according to the Freedom of Information request.
The Police Force of Northern Ireland had the highest number of officers with three or more complaints, at 376. The Metropolitan Police was second with 273 officers, followed by Greater Manchester with 160, Kent with 130 and West Mercia with 117.
Altogether, the statistics from 43 out of 52 constabularies showed more than 5,000 complaints were made against officers over the past year. According to the BBC, in Dyfed-Powys 40 allegations were made against one inspector and 38 against one constable during the year.
There are those of us not surprised by such high numbers. What is more alarming is that a public service is so shrouded in mystery…. Where are the news reports on this? Where are the statements to the community from senior officers apologizing for these numbers and giving confidence to the British public that they mean to actively tackle rouge officers within their ranks.
Using force sizes from http://s.coop/policeforces that gives us a ‘bad apple’ ratio of 0.88% in the Met, and a whopping 2% in Greater Manchester police. That’s quite impressive, and doesn’t incline me to think kindly of the next police officer I see in the street.
It would be interesting to know what (if any) internal processes are triggered by multiple complaints made about the same officer – particularly if they’re from different people and/or about different incidents.