COMPLAINTS about police being rude have doubled because night shifts are putting inexperienced officers in a bad mood.

Lancashire police bosses were so concerned about the rise in criticism that they hired a private company to carry out "mystery shopper" style tests on officers.

Now divisional commanders have been told to crack down on any rudeness -- and send discourteous staff to be retrained.

There were 154 official complaints about police officers' 'incivility' between April and December 2004, compared to 75 in the previous year, an increase of 105.3 per cent.

Of those, 33 were in the Eastern Division, covering Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley, the highest total in the county's six divisions.

Twenty three complaints about rudeness were made in the Pennine Division, covering Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale.

Det Supt David Brian told a meeting of Lancashire Police Authority that officers with less than five years' service working between 10pm and 6am on the streets were responsible for the majority of complaints.

He added: "We have written to all the divisional commanders and highlighted that it is not just about whether officers have done right or wrong, but the perception of the member of the public.

"If you speak to a member of the public in a way they don't like, that matters.

"Being polite and civil is a core element of what we should do as police officers.We have been providing guidance and re-training and are also speaking to people going through the training school."

The number of overall complaints also rose from 498 to 889, compared to the same period last year.

The biggest rises were complaints about unlawful arrest, oppressive conduct and breaches of codes of practice, which all increased by more than 130 per cent.

Police said this was expected, due to new regulations for complaining, which mean that friends or family of a 'victim' can, for the first time, make a formal complaint on their behalf.

In addition, new Independent Police Complaints Commission guidelines mean that relatively minor complaints, never before recorded, are now counted.

But police admitted that the new regulations could not be blamed for the rise in rudeness.

Acting Assistant Chief Constable Mike Cunningham told the meeting: "Incivility is a real issue for us, and not just a recording issue. We need to take action to address it."

The mystery shopper test, where staff from a private company were hired to approach police officers and staff and pretend to be members of the public, was completed in December and will be repeated every year.

Of the overall total of 889 complaints, 577 have so far been resolved. Nine officers were given warnings, 11 offered advice and one officer received a criminal caution.