Agenda item

The Chief Constable will be in attendance for this item.

The Panel considered a report of the Chief Constable concerning the Force’s performance with regard to complaints. A copy of the report, marked “Agenda Item 5”, is filed with these minutes.

The Chief Constable reported that his principal concern around the complaints that had been received was around the timeliness with which the Police had dealt with them.

The PCC confirmed that interviews would be taking place imminently for an Ethics and Integrity Committee which would look at this issue going forward and would carry out “dip sampling” of complaints files in the same way as the PCC currently did. The PCC confirmed that he was not comfortable with the 46% rise in complaints and would do everything possible to bring this down. The introduction of body worn video for all frontline officers was expected to play an important role in helping to achieve this.

Arising from the discussion, the following points were noted:

·                The PCC received every two to three months a full list of all complaints made against the Force. He then chose which ones he wished to look at in more detail, primarily based on a thematic basis. He then made comments on them as appropriate. Considerations such as whether a complaint should be escalated to the IPCC were also part of this process. The Panel questioned whether there were methodologies which could be adopted which would enable to the PCC to choose which files to look at in a fairer way or to demonstrate good practice;

·                The PCC felt that the word “direct” in paragraph 28 of the report probably went too far. He confirmed that he could not direct the Chief Constable to take any particular action on reading a complaint file, though he could and did ask questions about process and suggest any improvements;

·                The Home Office was consulting on the possibility of PCCs “owning” the complaints process. The PCC was not positive about this proposal, not least due to the resources required to carry out this work. He also felt that there may be a negative public reaction to PCCs investigating complaints against themselves. The Chief Constable was responsible for doing this in the Force and the operation of the complaints system was important to the discharge of these responsibilities;

·                In response to a request for more recent data, the Chief Constable stated that the report had been produced to respond to the issues raised by the Panel. He suggested that there was a wealth of data available to compare performance with other forces and a breakdown according to complaints against frontline police officers, PCSOs and specials. The Chief Constable looked at all data available and any trends that became evident;

·                The PCC could not attend hearings for staff, however as of May new legislation would mean hearings would be held in public. All panels had a serving independent member to ensure that the views of the public were represented;

·                Complaints could be made by telephone, online, email, post, via the IPCC or at a station. There was no evidence to suggest that station closures had affected the number of complaints received;

·                The OPCC had looked at how other forces had conducted their complaints processes. Other forces operated an earlier triage of the complaints to ensure they were dealt with quickly. This is one option the PCC was looking into;

·                Most complaints related to “neglect of duty” or “incivility”. This trend was reflected nationally. The Chief Constable was keen to see how this might change with the introduction of body worn video. Issues of training frontline staff would be addressed;

·                The PCC did not intend to target specific complaints categories going forward, though he did expect and hope to see continuous improvement.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the report be noted;

(b)       That a report be brought to the Panel on complaints performance in September including some further data, including comparisons with other forces and a breakdown for complaints made against all categories of frontline police staff.