What happens to your complaint
In this section:
| 1. What you can complain about |
| 2. How to complain about the police |
| 3. What happens to your complaint |
| 4. What to do if you're unhappy with the outcome of your complaint |
Once you’ve made a complaint about the police there are several possible outcomes. Every complaint is different, but we’ll follow the legislation and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) guidelines to try to find a satisfactory solution.
We'll look at your complaint and our standards team will assess its nature and seriousness.
If the reasons for your complaint are clear and no investigation is needed, we’ll try to get back to you quickly with information or an explanation.
Investigations
If we need to look at your complaint in more detail, we'll contact you to explain the next steps, how your complaint will be investigated and how a decision about it will be reached.
A complaint handler who isn’t directly connected to your complaint will look into it. The complaint handler will get in touch with you to ask for any missing details and answer any questions you may have.
They'll ask you how you'd like to be contacted and keep you informed of the progress.
You must receive an update every 28 days and at the end of the complaint process.
Complaints we get from the IOPC
If you make an initial complaint to the IOPC, they'll forward it to us. We’ll then follow the same process as if you'd contacted us directly.
Please note, the majority of complaints will be dealt with by your local police force.
Outcomes
However we handle your complaint we'll write to you to tell you the outcome and explain whether you can request a review.
Find out more about what you can do if you're unhappy with the outcome of your complaint.
Serious complaints
We'll refer serious complaints we receive to the IOPC.
Serious complaints include:
- action (or lack of action) that led to a person’s death or serious injury
- serious assault
- serious sexual offence
- serious corruption.
The IOPC may choose to investigate these cases themselves, independently of us.
Why your complaint might not be dealt with
Your complaint won't be dealt with if it's not 'reasonable and proportionate' for us to do so.
This could be because we've already looked into it or because you weren't directly affected by the events the complaint is about.