Handling of complaints

The request was partially successful.

Dear Derbyshire Constabulary,

Please provide the following documents requested under FOI

1) Copy of your procedure for recording a complaint from a member of the public, for clarification this is the procedure your force uses to determine whether to record or disapply the matter being complained.

2) Copy of your procedure to be used for staff performing Local Resolution on a recorded complaint.

3) Copy of your procedure to be used for staff performing Local Investigation on a recorded complaint.

4) In respect of 2) & 3), also provide copies of any other documents (internal only, any IPCC / Legislation documents do not need to be provided) refered to within those procedures. Examples of such documents may be another procedure or a form(in which case a blank sample form should be provided)

If these documents have previously been disclosed elsewhere, provide a link first checking that the link contains upto date information.

Yours faithfully,

Lisa Smithson

Freedom of Information Office,

Dear Ms Smithson,

 

I write in connection with your request for information as shown below.

 

Please provide the following documents requested under FOI

1) Copy of your procedure for recording a complaint from a member of the
public, for clarification this is the procedure your force uses to
determine whether to record or disapply the matter being complained.

2) Copy of your procedure to be used for staff performing Local Resolution
on a recorded complaint.

3) Copy of your procedure to be used for staff performing Local
Investigation on a recorded complaint.

4) In respect of 2) & 3), also provide copies of any other documents
(internal only, any IPCC / Legislation documents do not need to be
provided) refered to within those procedures. Examples of such documents
may be another procedure or a form(in which case a blank sample form
should be provided)

If these documents have previously been disclosed elsewhere, provide a
link first checking that the link contains upto date information.

 

Your request will now be considered in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (the Act). You should expect to receive a response
within the statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Act,
subject to the information not being exempt or containing a reference to a
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Many Thanks
 
Rajeena Olk
Disclosure Assistant
Freedom Of Information Unit
Corporate Services
Derbyshire Constabulary
Butterley Hall
Ripley
Derbyshire
DE5 3RS
Tel: 0300 122 8752
Email: [email address]

 

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Freedom of Information Office,

6 Attachments

Ms Smithson,

 

Thank you for making a Freedom of Information request to the Derbyshire
Constabulary.

 

Please find attached our response.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Kevin Lea

Freedom of Information Officer

Derbyshire Constabulary, Police Headquarters, Butterley Hall, Ripley,
Derbyshire.  DE5 3RS

Tel: 101   Direct Dial: 0300 122 5487 

Email: [1][email address]

Web: [2]http://www.derbyshire.police.uk

show quoted sections

Talbot Munce left an annotation ()

Document 002 is unmarked, has no attribution or authority and is endemic of Derbyshire's underhanded complaints policy.

It is pure fluff and fantasy. Written to assist the police in ridding themselves of those pesky complainants.

The second paragraph of that document is misguided drivel:

"Just because someone uses the word ‘complaint’ doesn’t automatically mean it must always be recorded and become subject of the Police Reform Act. It will depend on the seriousness of what’s alleged, your professional judgement and the complainant’s legitimate expectations...

...In such circumstances you should endorse the incident log, or if there isn’t one, make a pocket book entry but it does not need to be formally recorded on a complaint form"

This 'guidance' is totally contrary to the IPCC document that Kevin Lea provides (0005), which states quite clearly:

"The police have a duty to record complaints made by members of the public about the conduct of a person serving with the police and about the direction and control of a police force".

Any Derbyshire police officer who refuses to record a complaint, when the word 'complaint' has been used is in breach of the Police Reform Act and the IPCC guidelines.

Derbyshire police have a long history of sweeping complaints under the carpet, and here they have disclosed a snide document instructing their officers how to do it.

http://crimebodge.com/

J Roberts left an annotation ()

Police complaints Statistics for England and Wales 2021/22 (Experimental statistics)

Published 17 Nov 2022

https://policeconduct.gov.uk/sites/defau...

https://policeconduct.gov.uk/news/iopc-d...

Table 1: Number of complaint cases logged in 2021/22 (p17)

Derbyshire 1,314

Table 2: Number of complaint cases logged per 1,000 employees in 2021/22 (p18)

Derbyshire 355 (the average for all police forces is 309)

Table 5: Number of allegations logged in 2021/22 (p21)

Allegations per 1,000 employees - Derbyshire 650
(average for all forces is 497)