FOI reveals increase in public complaints about cops

(CNS): A response to a freedom of information request submitted by a local attorney has revealed that public complaints to the RCIPS more than doubled during 2009 when compared to the previous two years. In 2007 there were 87 complaints made by the public to the Police Professional Standards Unit (PSU), and in 2008 there were 93. However, in 2009 the complaints soared to 197. The FOI does not reveal the reasons why there was an increase in such complaints but the local attorney who made the request said he believes that the figures illustrate the current poor management of the country’s police service.

The FOI request, which was filed by attorney Peter Polack, also revealed that there are currently 34 ‘sub judice cases’ — complaints which are now being handled by the courts and have not yet been resolved – and that the resolution of complaints can be a long process.

Addressing the time period it takes for a complaint to be handled, the RCIPS said that on average it takes around three months for the police to deal with complaints, which fits within the guidelines that all complaints should be handled within 120 days. However, because of the variables in the nature of the complaints and the delay in receiving information from the legal department, the police said it can take longer, even as much as one year. The police said they consider a case dealt with if it leaves the PSU and goes on to the legal department.

“It should be noted for the purposes of recording time take, the ‘clock stops’ when a case is in sub judice and when the investigators’ report is either submitted to the DCI PSU or the legal department,” the FOI response states.

The request also shows that the police commissioner himself made complaints to the PSU about two officers. The issue, Polack says, raises a genuine question over a conflict of interest as it is the commissioner which oversees the process and applies the sanction to an officer. There are no complaints in previous years from commissioners, which Polack believes indicates that previous commissioners may have recognized that conflict.

Polack also questions why the public does not know the outcome of what amounts to some 377 complaints over the three year period and whether officers were reprimanded, suspended, fired or exonerated.

“The recent disclosure on the non-performing Police PSU must confirm to the lame duck leadership of law enforcement that the time to depart has now arrived,” Polack told CNS in the wake of receiving the FOI, as he warned that errors of the past should not be repeated.

“Capable and cost effective leadership can be found within the ranks of the existing RCIPS. The low morale of rank and file policemen requires an end to the comedy of errors, from arrests for non-existent offences to the polygraph disaster and more,” the attorney said. “The disappointment with an ineffectual administration can only persist unless a compelling change is embraced.”

Details of the wider current public satisfaction levels with the police are expected to be revealed soon when the RCIPS publishes the results of its recent public opinion survey. For three weeks at the end of 2010 the police circulated the survey to the public via its website and on the ground at supermarkets.

Police said the result of the survey will inform future policy and have committed to releasing the findings. “The survey will not only help us establish the needs and expectations of the people we serve, it will also allow us to identify areas where we are doing well and those where improvements need to be made,” Deputy Commissioner Anthony Ennis said at the launch of the survey.