UK: Police Complaints: Annual Report 1990
01 July 1991
Complaints against the police have reached a record high according to the latest Annual report from the Police Complaints Authority (PCA). During 1990 the Authority had 5,078 cases referred to it, an increase of 1% over the previous year, of which 836 were undertaken for supervision by the PCA. Of the referrals 95% related to death, serious injury or assault occasioning actual bodily harm (Table la).
Disciplinary cases rose by 16% to 7,156 and action was completed on 7,273 cases, (16,712 individual complaints) clearing a backlog of cases from 1989. Of the 7,273 disciplinary cases dealt with by the PCA in 1990, 758 (10.4%) resulted in some from of action ranging from criminal or disciplinary charges being brought to advice given.
Of the 16,712 individual complaints no action was taken on 13,372 of these. The vast majority were cases in which the 'evidence was insufficient either to establish that misconduct had occurred or to identify the officers whose alleged misconduct had given rise to complaint'. In 72 complaints there was no action because the officer was no longer serving.
In particular the Report draws attention to "a noticeable increase in the number of complaints about police officers making use of the Police National Computer (PNC) or force intelligence records for other than official purposes". In one instance an officer whose daughter was seeing someone he disapproved of used police records to discover confidential information on him. In another example a police officer whose wife was going out with another man used the PNC to discover the owner of the car in which his wife had been seen. Of these cases the Report notes that "a few chief officers ... do not seem to consider it serious enough to warrant taking formal disciplinary action."
Given its poor record dealing with complaints since its introduction in 1984 it is hardly surprising that, according to the British Crime Survey, less than one in ten people aggrieved by police conduct bother to make a complaint.
Police Complaints Authority Annual Report 1990, April 1991, HC 351, HMSO; Police Complaints Authority Triennial Review 1988-1991, April 1991, HC 352, HMSO.