New Met police video

[Equin0x 169]

Of the complaints you've seen made against officers for things like stop and search, use of force, and arrests, how many are justified or at least partly justified (maybe the officer is in the right but you can see why the complaint was made) compared to completely unjustified complaints with no grounds whatsoever?

What happens to an officer if they carry out an unreasonable search, complaint is made, and the complaint is upheld/the person reviewing the BWV agrees the grounds for that search were not there. I'm assuming it can depend on a few things, such as if it's the first such incident for that officer, was it blatantly unreasonable or just pushing the boundaries a little bit.

[Sceptre + 2,710]

You can see some 2021 statistics from the IOPC here. First of all we can see that of 67,732 complaints logged, only 36,365 actually needed recording because of their nature or because they couldn't be resolved informally, and if we scroll down to table 18 we see that in between 66-73% of cases the service provided was acceptable. This includes all kinds of complaints, from the police not coming out in time, not dealing with a crime in a certain way, not providing updates, incivility or simply just not doing what the complainant thought they should to complaints around use of force, use of powers such as stop and search etc. My perception is that most complaints around force, traffic stops, searches or arrests have so little substance that they're often resolved without you even being aware of them. Of course in this day and age BWV allows an investigator to get many of the facts in minutes.

If there is a question over an officer's conduct, then it would be assessed by a nominated individual to determine how it gets progressed; as a conduct matter, as a performance matter or via one of the new outcomes such as reflective practice. The flow chart early in that document sets it out in broad terms.

[Zulu 22 + 4,642]

There is a complaints industry out there whereby an offender believes that if they make a complaint it will stop a prosecution.  If reality it usually ensures that the prosecution goes ahead to allow a Court to decide on the evidence. After a conviction at Court the defendant does not want to proceed because it would make them look more stupid than they already are. I was once on the wrong end of a complaint which ended in a discipline hearing.  The  IOPC insisted that the discipline hearing be held as there had been criticism of the lack of action in a complaint made by the Black community. The hearing went ahead and the evidence clearly showed that I had instigated enquires which proved that the group of Black males could not have committed an armed robbery.  The result was extra ordinary in the fact that not only was the discipline hearing result  was the was the case was dismissed but, I received a Commendation for the way in which the case was handled. My legal representative said that, for him, it was a complete first.  Having represented officers at hearings myself it brought home the stress and worry that a discipline complaint could cause.

I have also dealt with many cases informally where it has been apparent that some one just wanted to have a moan but ended up accepting that the officer had done nothing wrong other than, correctly,  check their behaviour..

Edited March 17 by Chief Cheetah
Language updated to reflect modern times

[SD + 714]

A very rough idea from the complaints I've dealt with last week.

15% police not at fault, issue was due to lack of understanding of police powers/procedures

25% malicious complaint or playing the system

25% is the person has absolutely unrealistic expectations and will never be happy

15% organisational failings

15% the cop was at fault

5% wasnt really a complaint about police

[1TILL5 142]

On 16/03/2023 at 15:56, Equin0x said:

Of the complaints you've seen made against officers for things like stop and search, use of force, and arrests, how many are justified or at least partly justified (maybe the officer is in the right but you can see why the complaint was made) compared to completely unjustified complaints with no grounds whatsoever?

What happens to an officer if they carry out an unreasonable search, complaint is made, and the complaint is upheld/the person reviewing the BWV agrees the grounds for that search were not there. I'm assuming it can depend on a few things, such as if it's the first such incident for that officer, was it blatantly unreasonable or just pushing the boundaries a little bit.

From complaints I got- I'd honestly say over 90% were malicious, unrealistic expectations or poor knowledge of law. Some of the complaints were so clearly false I was frustrated no action was taken against the complainant. Usually the  case that people who would probarly have a right to complain don't for whatever reason (e.g cases when I probarly investigated the crime too slowly) 

[Reasonable Man + 1,259]

On 20/03/2023 at 20:18, SD said:

A very rough idea from the complaints I've dealt with last week.

15% police not at fault, issue was due to lack of understanding of police powers/procedures

25% malicious complaint or playing the system

25% is the person has absolutely unrealistic expectations and will never be happy

15% organisational failings

15% the cop was at fault

5% wasnt really a complaint about police

How did you manage to deal with 20+ complaints in one week? - rationale for that number being if the lowest %age you use (5%) was one complaint then 100% = 20. 

[SD + 714]

5 hours ago, Reasonable Man said:

How did you manage to deal with 20+ complaints in one week? - rationale for that number being if the lowest %age you use (5%) was one complaint then 100% = 20. 

About 6 a day Mon-Fri. A convoluted story but I've been dealing with the majority of complaints on the borough for the last few months.