Second straight increase in complaints about the police
Chief says it gives ‘an opportunity to learn’
COMPLAINTS made to Staffordshire Police have increased for the second year in a row, it has been revealed.
The force’s Professional Standards Department received 1,811 complaints during 2023 – up from 1,733 in 2022 and 1,505 in 2021.
But Staffordshire’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Ben Adams said complaints gave the force a chance to learn and improve its service.
The Commissioner’s office now receives all reviews, unless they relate to senior officers, criminal or misconduct proceedings or human rights issues.
It follows reforms to the police misconduct and complaints process which came into force in 2020.
Mr Adams, speaking at the latest Police, Fire and Crime Panel meeting, said: “There is a slight uptick in complaint numbers.
“On one hand, I would rather they were going the other way but on the other hand, if that’s an indication that more people feel confident they can complain and there’s clear routes to complain, it’s okay.
“However, there’s also an uptick in the number of reviews. That would indicate that more are not happy with the outcome of their complaint.
“It is interesting to note the things people are complaining about are pretty much the same as recent years.
“They’re generally around action following contact, the sharing of information, which is something I’m absolutely determined to improve.
“Sometimes people understandably are not happy about decisions. That’s always going to be the case, a decision will be made by the police officer or an investigating team weighing up all the factors that was not necessarily the one the person complaining would have hoped to have.
“Quite often, people want an apology, they want to know that learning has been taken and they want to know their experience has been properly understood. I don’t think that warrants a huge bureaucratic expensive process that involves staff time and money.
“But of course, if someone is not happy with the outcome they need to have a right to review. It is absolutely imperative that people have confidence in the service.”
Councillor Richard Cox said: “Any number of complaints is a concern. The number involved here are in my view quite significant.
“What plans are in place to try and drive it downwards?”
Mr Adams responded: “I learn more from looking at the complaints and talking to people who have made complaints about where the service can improve than almost anything else. If there’s 6,000 999 incidents a month, police get through a lot of incidents and we’re coming down to this level of complaints it’s actually not a very high percentage.”