Police complaints and conduct performance

As your Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly I will hold the Chief Constable to account to ensure that the police are continually building confidence and restoring trust with our communities. The police deal with hundreds of thousands of non-emergency and 999 calls every year, and the vast majority of police officers and staff do their jobs with integrity and honesty.

My Police and Crime Plan sets out my commitment to improving public confidence, and to achieve this it is important that a clear, transparent and accessible complaints system is in place. Our communities have a right to expect that the Chief Constable is held to account when police actions fall below the standards expected, and I want to make sure that we continue to remain open and transparent about what we have learnt from complaints. My Plan confirms that I will continue to hold the Chief Constable to account for the improvements that are still required to deliver a high-quality customer service, and the complaints system is an integral part of this.

An accessible and customer focussed complaints system provides communities with the power to raise concerns about the policing service they receive and about the conduct of the people delivering that service. Understanding dissatisfaction provides opportunity for learning and improvement, and it is very important that we listen to and investigate complaints in order to build trust in the police service. 

This is supported on a regular basis by the following monitoring activities:

• Undertaking reviews of police complaints. When a member of the public is dissatisfied with how their complaint has been handled by their local police force, the Police and Crime Commissioners Office may be contacted to conduct a police complaint review. We must determine whether the police’s handling of the complaint and the outcome was reasonable and proportionate. Where mistakes are identified and the review is upheld the Police and Crime Commissioner will make recommendations to the police to rectify the issue.
• Formal reporting to the Police and Crime Commissioner by the Deputy Chief Constable about performance relating to police complaints, police complaint handling and police misconduct on a quarterly basis.
• Monthly meetings between the OPCC Executive Team and Head of PSD to oversee the police handling of complaint and misconduct investigations, in particular to consider timeliness of investigations, identifying where investigation delays are and why and for those approaching or exceeding 12 months, , to make reasonable and proportionate recommendations where necessary.
• Dip sampling of completed complaint and misconduct cases. This involves a review by relevant Police and Crime Commissioner’s staff of a randomly selected batch of complaint and misconduct case files held by the police and the writing of a report on what has been found - typically checking due process has been followed, and timeliness.
• Monitoring of Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) national comparison data of police complaint and misconduct. The IOPC collects data directly from police complaint and misconduct databases, and reports quarterly and annually. These reports are published on the IOPC website, and a link is also provided on this website. Where a report highlights performance that is of concern, the Police and Crime Commissioner will require the Force to provide a response to this.

Publicity surrounding policing in England and Wales over the last few years has had a significant impact on how members of our communities view their police forces.  The IOPC annual report on the public’s perception of policing published in May this year (2023), has identified that negativity in the police is at its highest level since 2020, and that police misconduct has contributed significantly to this feeling. How our communities feel about the police handling of complaints has also been affected. Confidence in the police to deal fairly with complaints is at its lowest point since testing began in 2017 (IOPC, May 2023).

This has led to a range of interventions on a national focus.  The Baroness Casey review of the culture and standards of behaviour in the Metropolitan police force, which concluded in March 2023, highlighted the need for radical reform, the Rt Hon Lady Elish Angiolini’s inquiry into the murder of Sarah Everard is ongoing, with Part 1 report due to be published in early 2024, the Home Secretary Priti Patel commissioned the HMICFRS to undertake a review to assess the capability of police forces to vet and monitor officers. This included examining forces’ abilities to detect and deal with misogynistic and predatory behaviour by police officers and staffing, and the College of Policing undertook a root and branch review of its statutory guidance on police ethics, with a new revised code of conduct, code of practice and guidance expected to be published before the end of 2023, and the Home Office have reviewed the legal processes used in handling police complaints and conduct which concluded in September 2023, resulting in a number of recommended changes to the legislation behind police misconduct and police complaint processes.

In light of the important and much needed national scrutiny of police standards and conduct and the resulting recommendations for reform and improvement I have strengthened my oversight of police standards and conduct in Devon and Cornwall.  I have reviewed the priorities in my office and created a new Accountability and Standards team tasked with supporting my programme of work towards holding the Chief Constable to account.   Specific areas on which my team are focussing are:-

• Scrutiny of police conduct process
• Scrutiny of police complaint handling for complaints about discrimination
• Developing a framework for holding the Chief Constable to account for ethical and professional policing in compliance with the revised Police Code of Ethics.
• Monitoring implementation of recommendations arising from national reviews of policing standards.

When a member of the public is dissatisfied with how their complaint has been handled by their local police force, the PCC may be contacted to conduct a police complaint review. The OPCC must determine whether the police’s handling of the complaint and the outcome was reasonable and proportionate. Where mistakes are identified and the review is upheld the PCC will make recommendations to the police to rectify the issue.

The Police and crime Commissioner is committed to ensuring that the complaint review function undertaken by her office has integrity, is impartial and provides quality of service. The Police and Crime Commissioner is also committed to ensure that review decisions are sound and in line with the requirements of the complaints legislation and IOPC statutory guidance.

Here you can find the service standards relating to the handling of police complaint reviews.

Here you can find audits of the PCCs police complaint review handling function

Audit 2020-21 

The annual assessment of the police and crime commissioner's performance in handling police complaint reviews can be found here.