Drop in IOPC complaints is credit to the force, says Federation

A DROP in the number of complaints being lodged against Essex Police officers is to the credit of the force, says Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor.

Nationally, complaints dealt with by the IOPC were down 7% from 2016/17, The National Police Complaints Statistics for England and Wales has shown. In Essex, there’s been a drop of around 25% which is entirely down to the hard work and efforts of Essex Police, Steve said.

“We’ve changed and we’ve put more emphasis on local resolutions, on local inspectors dealing with local level complaints,” he explained.

“We’ve introduced quality assurance teams that proactively contact those that have had a poor experience which maybe has leads to a drop in official complaints being made.

“And, of course, PSD itself is seeking to reform. But arguably in this scenario, if it gets to PSD it’s gone too far because they have a department that deals with the actual complaints,” he said.

The use of bodycams is the driver behind a drop in vexatious and malicious complaints, Steve thinks, but it could also be simply because there are less officers on the beat to be complained about.

“Numbers of officers are increasing which is promising, but maybe there are fewer complaints because there’s fewer people to be complained about.”