One in three people not confident their complaint will be handled fairly by police, survey for IPCC shows
3 Jul 2014 04:35 PM
One
in three people in England & Wales are not confident that if they complain
to the police their complaint will be handled fairly, according to a survey for
the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) published
yesterday.
The
survey of more than 4,000 people also found:
- a
growing proportion of people – three out of four – say they would
complain if really unhappy about how a police officer behaved towards them or
handled a matter they were involved in; but two out of five of those questioned
were not confident they would know how to do so
- people from ethnic minority communities were less likely
to say they would complain, and more likely to fear harassment if they did
so
- people aged 15-24 are less likely to be happy with the
way police treated them but less willing to complain or to have confidence in
the police dealing fairly with complaints.
IPCC Chair, Dame Anne Owers, said: "The majority of
the 30,000 complaints made annually about the police are handled by the police
service itself. This survey shows that too many people are still either
unsure of how to make a complaint about the police or don’t believe their
complaint will be dealt with fairly. It is particularly worrying that young
people and those from ethnic minorities have lower confidence in the complaints
system.
"The survey underlines the importance of the plan
we are launching yesterday, and there is clearly more work to be done by both
the police and IPCC to improve access, awareness and trust in the complaints
system and those who work in it.”
The
2014 Public Confidence Survey is the sixth in a series over the last ten
years. It looks at public perceptions of the police, the complaints
system, and the IPCC.
This year’s survey shows the majority of people
are aware of the IPCC (64%) and 77% of those people are confident that the IPCC
deals with its work in an impartial way. However, awareness among ethnic
minorities is less than half (32%) that of the white population
(74%).
Other key findings from the survey
include:
- 23%
of people had had contact with police over the previous 12 months, a lower
proportion than most earlier surveys but an increase on 2011
(20%);
- the
proportion of people (66%) stating they were happy with their contact with
police has fallen back to 2004 levels after a high of 76% in 2011; and people
from ethnic minority groups continue to be less happy (56%) than white people
(68%).
Dame Anne said: "Later this year the IPCC will
begin to take on more independent investigations into serious and sensitive
allegations made against the police. That is an important part of our
statutory responsibility to ensure public confidence in the police complaints
system. But it is not enough, by itself, to achieve that
aim.
"The survey findings underline the need for more
work to address public confidence concerns, and how important it is we take
forward our work to improve complaints handling, in partnership with forces,
PCCs, and other policing bodies.”
Steps set out under the IPCC’s plans for oversight
& confidence and engagement plans, which are published yesterday,
are:
- developing additional guidance for police forces to
handle complaints better, and formalising its work with Police and Crime
Commissioners;
- providing better information for the public on how their
local force handles complaints, and continuing to make the case for a
simplified complaints system that is easier for the public to
use;
- introducing a more robust system for holding forces to
account and following up learning recommendations – new powers will
compel forces to respond formally and publicly to IPCC
recommendations;
- continuing to argue for reform of the police
disciplinary system to make it more timely and transparent;
- undertaking a programme of engagement activity with BME
communities and young people to increase awareness of the complaints system as
well as understanding and tackling the barriers they face;
- working towards a complete picture of case outcomes for
individual officers and staff members across the complaints system including
criminal and disciplinary proceedings and dealing with unsatisfactory
performance.
The
plan also builds on learning from the recent review of how the IPCC
investigates deaths following police contact which benefited from feedback from
bereaved families and other stakeholders.
In
January this year, the IPCC issued a draft oversight and confidence plan for
public consultation, and received more than 100 responses from a range of
stakeholders, including members of the public, police forces, Police and Crime
Commissioners and voluntary sector organisations. Respondents provided useful
feedback and raised a variety of views including that the IPCC should do more
to speed up its handling of cases and to improve the quality of its
work.
The
Oversight and Confidence plan launched outlines the steps the IPCC will take,
in cooperation with stakeholders including the College of Policing, HMIC and
Police and Crime Commissioners, to improve complaints handling and embed good
practice in policing.
The
IPCC conducted a series of pilot oversight projects in 2013/14 that examined in
detail how forces are handing aspects of the complaints system, most recently
an investigation into how forces handle allegations of
discrimination. The reports identified significant failings in how forces
handle complaints and can be found here.