Posted: Monday 6 December 2010
Complaints against Scotland's police down by 6%
I see the collection and analysis of data about complaints received from the public as a valuable source of information that can be used to inform the work that is already underway within the police service, to modernise complaints handling arrangements across Scotland."
Professor John McNeill
Figures released today (Monday 6 December) by Scotland's Police Complaints Commissioner reveal that complaints about police bodies operating in Scotland have fallen for the first time in four years.
In the year ending March 2010, the total number of complaint cases received fell by 6% to 4,574 from 4,862 in 2008-09. The total number of allegations contained within these cases also fell from 8,558 to 7,689, a drop of 10%.
The report, known as the Annual Statistical Return (ASR), is compiled and analysed by the PCCS, using information supplied by the eight Scottish police forces, their eight boards and the other UK and Scottish police bodies operating in Scotland.
Within this good news, however, a variable picture of complaints emerges across Scotland. Complaints against three forces have increased in the last year: Northern (+55%), Tayside (+11%) and Grampian (+8%).
The largest increase was recorded by Northern Constabulary where 272 complaint cases were received, half as many again as the previous year. At the other end of the table, Fife Constabulary reported the biggest fall in complaints with 340 received, 16% down on last year, although they received more complaints than Northern in absolute terms.
Strathclyde Police is the only force to report a year on year decline in complaints, falling by 3% in 08/09 and a further 15% drop in 09/10.
In order to adjust for differences in force size and geographic area and enable more direct comparisons to be made between forces, the report uses a population denominator of complaint cases received per 10,000 of the population by police force and a per 1,000 on duty officers.
Using these measures, the largest force, Strathclyde, received the lowest number of allegations per 10,000 population at fewer than 7, with Tayside Police the highest at 12 per 10,000 population. Using the per 1,000 on duty officers measure, Grampian was the highest with 500 complaints received, while Strathclyde received fewest by this measure at 278 complaints.
The most common complaint allegations made during the period were irregular procedure (27%), incivility (16%) and assault (13%). "Irregular procedure" covers complaints that the police are not carrying out their duty well, such as taking a less than detailed statement or not following a particular line of inquiry.
Complaints alleging criminal behaviour by on duty police officers fell from 1,025 to 776, with proceedings being taken in just 11 cases.
According to Professor McNeill if the data is used well, forces can take action to spot, investigate and reverse negative trends and even get ahead of the curve by learning from other forces.
He said: "It is too early to say if the rising trend in complaints is reversing, but the overall fall this year is good news and should be commended. I expect that the public will want to drill down from the headline numbers to see how their local police service is performing compared to others across the country. I also expect that the police themselves will examine their statistics to identify areas where they can improve."
Click here to read the full report