Huge drop in complaints against Nottinghamshire Police

The number of complaints against the police has dropped by 31 per cent.

The drop, which was the biggest in the country in 2016/17, was revealed by security experts, Locksmithservice.co.uk, who exposed data from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

The complaints, made by members of the public, relate to the conduct of people serving with the police or the way a police force is run.

A total of 34,103 complaints cases were brought against the police across the UK in 2016/17, and most forces endured a rise from the previous year. However, Nottinghamshires’s number dropped from 967 to 670, with the force one of only 15 to experience a decline.

Det Supt Leona Scurr, head of the force’s professional standards department, said the figures reflected a drive to handle complaints more effectively.

She said: “We have invested heavily in dealing with dissatisfaction, whereby an officer in the control room will phone a person back and get the wheels in motion for them so they can get their issue resolved quickly, there and then.

“We also have a dedicated sergeant who assesses all calls into the department. This allows consistency over what is suitable to be resolved immediately and what should be recorded as a complaint.

“We are assessing things a lot better and dealing with them more quickly, and this is now showing results. We record all issues so that themes can be identified for organisational learning.”

Det Supt Scurr also pointed out that officers are now wearing video cameras as part of their uniforms, which might have contributed to the reduction.