Complaints against police start to fall following spike

The force has revealed that there has been an 11 per cent reduction in the number of cases its professional standards department has dealt with between July and September – although 234 complaint allegations have still been recorded.

It represents a marked improvement after North Yorkshire Police saw a 27 per cent increase in the 12 months to March 2010 – a statistic revealed in the Yorkshire Post last year after the force’s former Deputy Chief Constable Adam Briggs ordered a study of officers’ behaviour.

However in York, allegations have increased to 71 compared to 68 the previous year.

Of the 234 complaint allegations recorded during the second quarter of this financial year, 67 per cent have been locally resolved.

Steve Read, director of North Yorkshire Police’s professional standards unit, said: “The slight reduction in numbers of complaint allegations and cases is welcome.

“We are particularly pleased with the maintenance of our rate of local resolution of complaints because the available information from the Independent Police Complaints Commission and other sources indicates that a locally resolved complaint is likely to bring greater satisfaction to members of the public than a complaint resolved by other means.”

The greatest reduction in the number of allegations against officers and staff was seen in Scarborough and Ryedale, where a 47 per cent decrease was evident after 54 allegations were recorded compared with 101 for the same period of the previous year.

Harrogate District saw a reduction in allegations for the second quarter of the current financial year, from 44 to 17.

Allegations in Craven reduced from 17 to 10, while there was a decrease in Hambleton and Richmondshire of 36 complaints compared to 31 previously.