Policing Diversity — Managing Complaints against the Police

Abstract

This study takes a critical perspective in examining public attitudes towards police stop-and-search powers and, more particularly, police misconduct. It shows how police accountability works through the formal and complex system of complaints against police. It shows a system designed to favour the police against the citizen. In the eyes of some citizens this has tended to reduce the legitimacy of the complaints process, which has led to its under use. Certain police practices and services appear to impact more on diverse sections of the public than it does on the white community. It shows how aberrant police behaviour exposes some of the sociological issues such as black over-representation in public dissatisfaction and complaint statistics. The research also highlights the hidden figure of police deviance and misconduct. This study acknowledges future changes in complaints management proposed by the Home Secretary, David Blunkett MP. However, these proposals do not appear to go far enough. The complaints process is beset with a number of significant problems which include inaccessibility, complication and inequality. The study suggests, as the way forward, a model of ‘good practice’ using a pragmatic approach, which is customer-focused and overcomes many of the problems that allow for easy access, simplification and informality. The principle of civil libertarian ideals prevails, satisfying the legal notion, ‘justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done’.