Statement On BBC News Police Complaints Figures Story

In response to a BBC News story regarding the numbers of police officers who received three or more complaints about their conduct, Acting Superintendent Stacey Williamson of West Mercia Police's Professional Standards Department said:

"To compare the statistics of different police forces' complaints procedures in this way is deeply flawed. When West Mercia Police was contacted by the researcher who put this table together, part of our response to the Freedom of Information request included guidance that the figures would not be comparable between forces and that care needs to be taken when drawing conclusions from the results.

"Every force has an informal procedure to assess officers who have received multiple complaints against them to make sure officers behaviour is up to the standards expected of them.

"However, every force has its own way of assessing these and to make a comparison of the figures supplied by forces in response to these requests in misleading. While West Mercia flagged up 117 officers for receiving at least three complaints within a 12 month period, it was only felt necessary to put five officers on a formal review."

West Mercia's full response to the Freedom of Information request is available here:

FOI 2452: Procedures for complaints against police officers

Issued: Thursday 2 September 2010