Police force complaints rise again

Staffordshire Police is currently in special measures but this could be lifted soon

There has been an increase in complaints made to Staffordshire Police, according to figures from the force’s professional standards department.

It is the second year in a row that the number has risen.

During 2023, the force received 1,811 complaints – up from 1,733 in 2022 and 1,505 in 2021.

Staffordshire’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) Ben Adams said the complaints provided an opportunity for the force to learn and improve its service.

Mr Adams said there was also an uptick in the number of reviews, which he said indicated more people were not happy with the outcome of their initial complaint.

PFCC Ben Adams said complaints provided an opportunity to learn and improve

"Ultimately, sometimes people understandably are not happy about decisions," he said.

"That’s always going to be the case, a decision will be made by the police officer or an investigating team weighing up all the factors that was not necessarily the one the person complaining would have hoped to have."

He added that people often wanted an apology and to know that their experience has been understood and learned from.

While that did not always warrant "a huge, bureaucratic, expensive process" Mr Adams said it was only right that people had a right to review the result of a complaint.

"It is absolutely imperative that people have confidence in the service – not just the public but the staff as well," he said.

'Low percentage'

Mr Adams said he learned more about the force from looking through the complaints that had been lodged than almost any other method.

Nevertheless, he said the volume of complaints was "not a very high percentage" compared with the number of incidents the force dealt with every month.

“Given that you’re sometimes taking people’s liberty and using powers you’re always going to have a percentage,” he said.

Staffordshire Police has been in special measures since June 2022, but is expected to exit from this in the coming months.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.