Complaints against Lancs police on the up (From Chorley Citizen)

Complaints against Lancs police on the up

6:30pm Monday 15th March 2010 in

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COMPLAINTS against Lancashire police have increased by a third.

Accusations including failure of duty, incivility, harassment and perjury have increased from 1,103 in 2008 to 1,452 in 2009.

There were even a small number of sexual assault allegations recorded.

The figures, which include complaints against both officers and staff, are included in a Professional Standards report by the Constabulary’s intelligence manager Stan Fenton.

In a breakdown of incident type and number for the nine months from April 2009 to December 2009, both Eastern Division and Pennine Division show very small rises.

In Eastern there were in 216 allegations and in Pennine there were 177 allegations.

However, the amount of actual recorded complaints across the whole force is 701 - half of those lodged with the force. They are complaints which warranted an investigation.

And only 88 of the 701 recorded complaints were upheld – 12.5 per cent - with sanctions including ‘no action’, counselling, advice and written warnings.

Eleven officers resigned before their hearing and a further three requested to resign.

Lancashire Police Federation chairman John O’Reilly said: “Because we are so accountable - as we should be - we record everything that comes in.

“Often you get multiple allegations against one officer or a complaint for exercising their powers.

“A classic example is when we are trying to preserve an RTA scene and divert motorists away.

“We support the public’s right to make a complaint, but also our right to investigate that claim and report if it is malicious.”