MAY I place into context the figures for complaints against the Lancashire Constabulary quoted in your article 'Blow for Police as Complaints Rocket' (LET, July 4)?
The figures from the annual report of the Police Complaints Authority reflect only the workload during 1995/96 and do not purport to be an accurate indicator of the performance of individual police forces.
As your article correctly stated, many complaints are not dealt with by the Police Complaints Authority and, therefore, do not reflect in its figures.
In fact, compared with many forces, Lancashire Constabulary tends to refer more complaints to the Police Complaints Authority because we value the benefits of independent adjudication.
It is, however, also true that, of the 309 cases we referred to the Authority during 1995/96, almost half were the subject of dispensation by the Authority as not meriting full investigation.
The more accurate situation is to be found in an examination of all complaints, irrespective of their disposal.
During the year in question, 720 complaints were recorded by the Lancashire Constabulary - a figure which compares very favourably with most forces of a similar size. The true picture becomes even clearer when one examines the number of complaints against the backdrop of the number of incidents and crimes dealt with by our officers during the same period - over 785,000 in total (an increase in recorded caseload in excess of 25 per cent over the last five years).
This amounts to only one complaint for almost every 1,100 incidents dealt with.
As with any organisation, public or private, we do not always 'get it right' and when we do not, complaints are an important medium from which we can learn for the future. This is the positive value of complaints and is recognised as such by most forward thinking organisations.
SUPERINTENDENT V J BREEN (Discipline and Complaints), Headquarters, Lancashire Constabulary, Hutton, Preston.
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