Complaints Procedure
Keywords
Procedure, Policy, Process, Practices, Documentation, Formal, Complaints, Lodge, Investigation, Case, Report, Incident, Allegation, Police, Staff, Public, Code, Ethics, Conduct, Misconduct, Professional, Standards, Department, PSD, Human, Resources, HR, Chief, Constable, Independent, Office, IOPC, Fire, Crime, Commissioner, PFCC, Categories, Strand, Coding, Referrals, Reviews, Publish, Hearings, Openness, Transparency, Corruption.
Publication Number
PUB 1344
Publication Statement
Please note that this information is correct as at 23 December 2021 and may be subject to change. Essex Police aim to review and update this publication annually.
As with all publications of information by Essex Police, please note caveats may apply regarding the accuracy of data.
Title
Complaints Procedure
Date Range
N/A
Related Documents/Links
N/A
FOI Publication
Complaints against the Police
The C3001 Procedure - Dealing with Complaints against the Police informs Officers and members of staff of the process to be undertaken when dealing with complaints from the public. The aim is to provide the complainant with the following:
- Greater access to the complaints system
- A better understanding of the complaints process which is both open and transparent
- An effective resolution through a proportionate and timely investigation
- Increased confidence by applying the lessons learnt from a complaints procedure to provide an enhanced quality of service.
Complaints against an Individual(s)
The conduct of a Police Officer or a Police Staff member is an important issue and the following will provide further information.
Essex Police have an expectation that management and staff at all levels will lead by example, consistently displaying behaviour in line with the Code of Ethics and ensuring adherence to legal requirements and to all Essex Police policies, procedures and practices. Through Prevention, Intelligence, Enforcement, Communication and Engagement, Essex Police is committed to making sure the opportunity for corruption is reduced to the lowest possible risk. Where corruption is identified the organisation will deal with it proportionately and effectively.
A member of the public can lodge a complaint regarding conduct with the Professional Standards Department (PSD).
If a complaint is about the conduct of a Police Officer or member of Police Staff made from a member of the public, the complaint will be managed by PSD and dealt with by either the policing area or department it relates to, through a local resolution or a local investigation. This can subsequently be appealed to either the Chief Constable or the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) depending on the specifics of the individual case if the complainant remains dissatisfied. If local resolution is not appropriate and the complaint considered serious, the complaint will be investigated by the PSD. Essex Police can also refer matters to the IOPC who may decide to independently investigate certain cases.
Internal conduct cases (from staff v staff) are managed by Human Resources (HR) who will, if necessary refer to PSD for formal assessment. If formal misconduct is identified, HR will manage the investigation, however, PSD will decide on whether there is a case to answer through a disciplinary process. Dependant on the circumstances, it can be in various forms, from an informal warning to a formal disciplinary hearing. Formal misconduct cases are recorded by PSD on the conduct database.
The Essex Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) holds the Police Force to account and has the legal power to hold the Chief Constable to account. This is an important issue and both the PFCC and the Police Service need to be accountable and transparent regarding this issue. Data is regularly published via quarterly reports, please click on the following link:
http://www.essex.pfcc.police.uk/reporting/conduct-professional-standards/
Please note that the system used to manage complaints and investigations is designed to follow the national guidelines regarding reporting. Statistics, therefore, follow the published guidelines based on the set 11 Complaint Categories A-L with 45 sub-categories and Misconduct Categories. Complaint and misconduct data are recorded pre strand in a case. It does not cover each Officer allegation within a separate complaint. Each complaint or misconduct case is likely to have more than one complaint/misconduct strand or category and could include multiple Officers subject to a complaint strand.
Additional mandatory referrals and requested reviews can also be viewed via the IOPC web site. The following link provides useful data and explains further regarding coding and strands of misconduct and complaints:
https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/tags/essex-police
The IOPC publish the number of complaint cases broken down by force, the most recent data is for the 2019/20 year – please see below link:
There are limitations in regard the type, terminology and detail of information that can be extracted and provided under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in addition to data already available and published. The FOIA does not require new data to be created in order to comply with a request, therefore, any request that falls outside of the above complaint coding and misconduct categories is likely to be qualify as the creation of data or potentially attract the excess cost exemptions.
To increase openness and transparency misconduct hearings are now held in public, (although in exceptional circumstances they can be held in private).
This decision was announced by the Home Secretary in the spring of 2015 and applies to all cases where an Officer is given notice to attend a hearing after May 2015. Further information regarding misconduct hearings and upcoming hearings can also be found via the following links:
https://www.essex.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/mis/misconduct-hearings/
https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/accessing-information/published-items?q=misconduct