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Police complaints increase by 20pc
COMPLAINTS against police in South Yorkshire have rocketed by more than 20 per cent in the last 12 months, according to new figures compiled by senior officers.
In the year running from April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008, South Yorkshire Police received 703 complaints relating to a variety of problems with conduct of its officers.
During the same period in 2008 and 2009, complaints rose 21.34 per cent to 853, but the force says plans are already being put in place to tackle the issue.
In a report accompanying the statistics, which have been produced for members of the county's police authority, police chiefs admit 2008/09 was the worst year in the past five.
Before this, complaints raised about police conduct never broke through the 800 level, with the totals for the previous five years standing at 737, 776, 760 and 703 respectively.
Senior officers said the historically low number of complaints in 2007/08 had led to a possibly misleading "marked increase" which was not representative of long-term trends.
According to the statistics, some areas of force work have seen more marked increases than others, with complaints about "discriminatory behaviour" up 280 per cent.
In 2007/08 just five complaints were made about discrimination. That jumped to 19 the following year but the force says the "low numbers involved" should be taken into account.
Senior officers also say other categories should be viewed with a degree of caution because huge percentage rises can come from a relatively small number of actual incidents.
The report says: "The complaint category showing the largest single increase in number has been 'other neglect or failure in duty'. A total of 196 complaints were recorded in 2008/09 compared with 130 in the previous year.
"However, when reviewing the five-year trend data, the number of complaints received in 2007/08 in this category were particularly low in comparison to previous years.
"In addition, an increase of 32 recorded complaints has been seen in the oppressive conduct or harassment category, from 31 in 2007/08 to 30 in 2008/09. This has shown as a more marked increase due to a significant reduction in complaints last year."
Other areas which have shown increases include "lack of fairness and impartiality", which has gone up from 14 to 30, and "irregularity in relation to evidence/perjury, which has increased from seven to 20.
Police chiefs have pointed to some positive data from the 2008/09 statistics, including figures which which shows the number of complaints involving alleged assault have fallen from 153 to 142. Another decrease has been seen in complaints relating to detention, treatment and questioning, with figures falling from 54 to 44.
In the report to the police authority's business support committee, deputy chief constable Bob Dyson says he had ordered a number of measures in an attempt to reduce complaints. Mr Dyson says that "professional standards boards" will be set up in each of the force's four geographical areas to consider how to tackle complaint issues "at local level". He adds: "The minutes of the four boards are considered at the force professional standards committee, which is chaired by the deputy chief constable. This enables any force-wide issues to be identified."
"This will lead to an improved understanding of underlying matters, which are able to be addressed through management intervention."
The complaints report will be considered by a meeting which will be held at 10am this Friday at the offices of the South Yorkshire Joint Secretariat in Regent Street, Barnsley. The meeting is open to the public.
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