Dear Independent Office for Police Conduct,

I have been in contact with Northumbria Police regarding how they categorise complaints against officers within their complaints process.

As a result of my enquiries they have provided a document which they identified as "Home Office" which has two columns of information, "Code" and "Category"

I have copied the list below to assist you in identifying the relevant information.

A - Serious Non-Sexual assault
B - Sexual Assault
C - Other Assault
D - Oppressive conduct or Harassment
E - Unlawful / Unnecessary arrest / Detention
F - Discriminatory behaviour
...............................................................................
G - Irregularity in relation to evidence or perjury
H - Corrupt Practice
J - Mishandling of Property
K - Breach Code A PACE Stop/Search
L - Breach Code B PACE/Searches
M- Breach Code C PACE/Detention
N- Breach Code D PACE/Identification
P- Breach Code E PACE/Tape Recording
Q - Lack of Fairness and Impartiality
R - Multiple/Unspecified Breach PACE
S - Other Neglect or Failure in Duty
T - Other Irregularity in Procedure
U - Incivility, Impoliteness, Intolerance
V - Traffic Irregularity
W - Other
X - Improper Disclosure of Info
Y - Other Sexual Conduct

I naturally assumed that the Home Office was responsible for these categories and the definitions thereof but the Home Office has responded stating that these matters are fully administered by the IOPC.

I would therefore request any information you hold regarding these categories and any definitions, descriptions or examples of what behaviour or offences they should be, or indeed have been, applied to be that statistical or otherwise.

I am attempting to establish what if any category / categories should have been applied to a complaint regarding the following example:-

Victim dials 999 and requests police attendance at an incident in a building.

Two police officers attend the incident 35 minutes after the call is made.

The police walk past the victim, after the victim identifies themselves and informs the police that they were the 999 caller.

The police ignore the victim and speak to the staff in the building for 5 minutes before returning to confront the victim.

When asked why the police spoke to the staff first rather than the victim the police state they were called by the staff first.

The victim is told they were causing a disturbance and are required to leave.

The victim asks the police to canvas the people present during the alleged disturbance only for an officer to state we "will not be speaking to anyone"

The victim then asked for the officers to record an allegation against the staff within the building for making a false allegation against the victim for a disturbance which had not occurred, the police refused.

The victim is then ordered out of the building without the police taking any statement or complaint other than from the staff.

Upon returning to their home the victim calls 101 and is informed that the police only received one 999 call from that location and it originated from the victim, not the staff within that building.

The police responded to a 999 call only to ignore the caller, refused to undertake even the most rudimentary investigation or take statements from the parties concerned in relation to the minimum standards for the primary investigation of crime and I believe in breach of the requirements specified under section 3.5 of the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996.

The officers lied to the victim claiming they were attending the incident after a call from the staff in the building whilst refusing to take any information from the actual victim.

The complaint submitted to Northumbria police included all of this information under a heading of Dereliction of Duty in respect to the officers concerned and I do not believe the codes subsequently used by Northumbria Police adequately address the nature of the offences.

If you have any information which would allow the circumstances described above to be correctly categorised I would appreciate it if you could also include that.

Yours faithfully,

W Hunter