Blow for police as complaints rocket

Newly-released figures show a 24 per cent rise in the number of complaints about Lancashire officers in the year ending in March 1996.

And there was also a rise of 18 per cent in the number of actual cases dealt with by the Police Complaints Authority during the same period.

The PCA figures show there were 309 cases and 534 complaints against Lancashire's 3,195 officers in 1995/96.

That compares to 261 cases and 429 complaints in the previous 12 months.

They included 183 of assault, 58 of unlawful or unnecessary arrest, 24 of irregularities in evidence or perjury and three of racial discrimination.

Throughout the country, 9,816 cases were referred to the authority, 4,154 fully investigated cases were reviewed and 1,113 officers were disciplined.

The Police Complaints Authority was set up under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 to supervise and review complaints against police officers and matters voluntarily referred by police forces because of their potential seriousness.

Between 30 and 40 per cent of all recorded complaints are resolved informally without reaching the authority.

The Police Complaints Authority's annual report has called for Special Constables to be included in the complaints system.

The authority is also calling for powers to review investigations into complaints against the growing number of police civilian employees.

A Lancashire Police spokesman said today: "The statistics show only a proportion of complaints.

"Complaints that are withdrawn or informally resolved are not handled by the Police Complaints Authority.

"Traditionaly, this constabulary has forwarded a large proportion of complaint files to the PCA.

"The PCA statistics report a slightly higher figure for complaints per officer this year, therefore, this year's figures are a decrease in real terms."

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