Complaints management information

Report: 5
Date: 10 February 2005
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report includes data for the 12 months to December 2004. It focuses on the key changes or exceptions within the data, as trends are slow to change. Appendix 1 includes graphs illustrating the trends.

Public complaints allegations have declined by approximately 1% in the rolling 12 months January 2004 to December 2004, compared to the rolling 12 months January 2003 to December 2003. The decline is gradually reducing and a ‘bottoming out’ is occurring.

Public complaint investigations over 120-days old have reduced from 144 (30% of the total ‘live’) to 97 (18% of the total ‘live’).

There has been a 9% rise in the percentage of allegations being Locally (Informally) Resolved from January 2004 to December 2004.

The average number of days between the decision to hold a misconduct hearing and the hearing itself has reduced by 29% from 180 days in January 2004 to 127 in December 2004.

A. Recommendations

That Members are asked to note the report, and the illustration of trends in Appendix 1.

B. Supporting information

1. Appendix 1 graphically illustrates some of the key trends using data drawn from Appendix 2.

2. The summary of Department of Professional Standards (DPS) performance indicators is attached at Appendix 2 and focuses on timeliness, quality and outcomes of investigations.

3. The diversity information is attached at Appendix 3.

4. The latest Performance Bulletin used by Internal Investigations Command is attached at Appendix 4.

Key performance indicators

5. This report focuses on the key changes or exceptions within the data as the nature of the figures and trends are slow to emerge.

6. Due to the different timings required by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) Secretariats for the preparation of the paper for the Professional Standards and Complaints Committee the data may appear dated by the time it is discussed.

Complaints Reduction - Public complaints (BVPI 21) – Chart 1 Appendix 1 and Row 1, Appendix 2

7. This shows a gradual rising trend in the 12 month rolling average of the number of allegations recorded since January 2004.

8. A comparison is made between the current rolling 12 month average and that from the same period in the previous year. This reveals that, on average, approximately 1% fewer allegations were recorded in the period January 2004 to December 2004 than compared to January 2003 to December 2003.

9. Although allegations continue to fall it is evident in the 12 month rolling averages that the rate of decline is reducing significantly from approximately 9% in January 2004 to approximately 1% in December 2004. Essentially, complaint allegation reduction is ‘bottoming out.’ At some point soon (within the next several months perhaps) complaint allegations will cease to reduce consistently and a natural fluctuation or indeed an increase may appear.

Substantiated allegations as a percentage of allegations fully investigated (BVPI 22) – Row 3, Appendix 2

10. These figures show a largely consistent upward trend in the percentage of fully investigated allegations that are substantiated from 11% in January 2004 to 17% in December 2004.

Officers suspended, restricted, removed from operational duties – Rows 4 to 6, Appendix 2

11. Following the review of suspension and restriction policy, presented by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Roberts at the last PSCC, all officers on either of those lists have now been allocated to the revised categories. Thus, an additional category of ‘removed from operational duties’ has been introduced to Appendix 2 and there has been some movement of people between this and the original categories of ‘restricted’ and ‘suspended’.

Public complaints finalised – Charts 1 and 2, Appendix 1 and Row 10, Appendix 2

12. The Local Resolution process has replaced the Informal Resolution process. The figures will include both of these outcomes until data prior to 1 April 2004 no longer appears in the appendices.

13. The new outcome of Discontinuance has been included with Dispensations. ‘Discontinuance’ relates to an application to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to stop an investigation that has already started.

14. The 12 month rolling average of the number of finalised allegations has declined from approximately 387 in January 2004 to 325 in December 2004.

15. By comparing the totals of recorded and finalised allegations on Chart 1 Appendix 1 it can be seen that, since April 2004, more allegations are being recorded than are being finalised. The difference between the two is increasing, on average, by 27 allegations per month.

16. Analysis of data since April 2004 indicates that there are a number of potential reasons for this; a) recorded allegations declining at a lower rate than before, b) increase in ‘live’ cases and c) increased delays in decision making by external stakeholders i.e. Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) & IPCC Police Complaints Authority (PCA).

17. Chart 2, Appendix 1 shows there has been a 9% rise in the percentage of allegations being Locally (Informally) Resolved, using a 12 month rolling average.

18. The main, corresponding, reduction has been in allegations unsubstantiated following a full investigation. Substantiated allegations have decreased from 3% to 2% in the 12 month rolling average to December 2004 [the exact figures in this instance are 2.95% to 2.49%].

Timeliness – Charts 3 and 4 Appendix 1 and Rows 11 and12, Appendix 2

19. The process improvements and performance expectations set for investigative units and teams continue to have a positive effect on performance.

20. The number of ‘live’ public complaint cases under investigation at Row 11, Appendix 2 shows that overall the number of cases under investigation has increased from 479 in January 2004 to a 554 in December 2004.

21. Over the last 12 months there have been further reductions in the number and percentage of public complaint investigations over 120-days old, from 144 (30% of the total ‘live’) to 97 (18% of the total ‘live’), a reduction of 37%.

22. The figures at Row 11, Appendix 2 show a slight increase in the number of current internal investigations over the same period from 119 to 130, an increase of 8%.

23. Over the same twelve months the percentage of those internal investigations that are over 120-days old, has increased slightly from 62 (52% of the total ‘live’) to 69 (53% of the total ‘live’), an increase of 10%.

Misconduct decisions – Charts 5 and 6, Appendix 1 and Rows 13/14, Appendix 2

24. The average number of days between the decision to hold a misconduct hearing and the hearing itself continues to fall significantly from 180 days in January 2004 to 127 in December 2004, a 29% reduction.

CPS decisions Appendix 1, Chart 7 and Row 15 Appendix 2

25. An improvement has been noted in the average time for the CPS to reach a decision in the 12 month rolling average in December 2004 was 111 days, down from 132 days in January 2004.

IPCC Police Complaints Authority (PCA) Decisions Appendix 1, Chart 8 and Row 16, Appendix 2

26. This has been renamed IPCC Decisions but will contain the combined performance of the outgoing PCA and the IPCC until such time as all of the PCA cases no longer appear in the period under scrutiny.

27. Timeliness in relation to ‘Discontinuance Decisions’ will be included with ‘Dispensation Decisions’.

28. The average time for the IPCC (PCA) to reach a decision in relation to dispensations/discontinuances was 46 days in December 2004. There has been a rise from 38 days in April 2004 when they first took over.

29. The decisions reached by the IPCC (PCA) in regard to investigations are taking on average 143 days to obtain. The 12 month rolling average has been rising steadily since June 2004.

30. The MPS and IPCC will be working together to establish to what extent the delays in the Commission reaching a decision are due to the old PCA ‘legacy’ cases. Additionally, the process will be broken down by the type of decision that is being sought.

Performance management framework

31. Attached at Appendix 4 is the Performance Bulletin used by the Internal Investigation Command (IIC) senior management team to reduce complaints and improve timeliness

32. It contains the performance expectations of each unit within IIC and ‘control charts’ that illustrate both the targets and whether any fluctuations in performance are outside what could be regarded as natural variation.

33. The source data for this bulletin is the Investigating Officer Workload Analysis (IOWA) summary and the Investigating Officer Throughput Analysis (IOTA) for the MPS.

34. These reports are produced twice weekly (IOWA) & twice monthly (IOTA) each being produced at three levels: firstly showing the performance at MPS level, secondly at Borough Support Unit level, and finally at Investigating Officer (IO) level where a case list for each IO is produced.

35. Investigating Officers use the IOWA data to manage their caseload on a weekly or even daily basis.

36. IOWA and IOTA require technical adjustments to allow for the IPCC changes. This has been commissioned but has yet to start. Once completed some of the elements in the Performance Bulletin may change.

Training – Row 18 Appendix 2

37. The information contained within Appendix 2 relates to both training sessions conducted for DPS Staff and additionally by DPS Staff for Probationer Officers and shows a year to date, cumulative, total.

38. Senior Investigating Officer training is generally for DPS Staff however, Borough Commanders and other non-DPS Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Staff and senior internal and external stakeholders such as the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) and the MPA itself. Normally two to three of these courses will run each year however, since inception, seven such courses have occurred.

39. In the 12 months to December 2004, 23 Investigating Officer training courses have been held.

40. As part of the DPS Prevention Strategy the directorate conduct integrity training to probationers on a weekly basis. It is delivered to all probationers as part of their continuation training at the 18 month stage of their employment. Up to the end of December 2004, 263 sessions have been conducted resulting in over 3568 probationers being trained.

41. DPS have also conducted a series of pilot courses in North West London regarding the Local Resolution process. It was aimed at Sergeant and Inspector ranks with a view to increasing their awareness and ability to resolve complaints locally. The rollout, covering North East, South East and South West as well as Central London, commenced this January.

C. Race and equality impact

Diversity information

1. The data provided in Appendix 3 outlines the equality and diversity issues related to the work of the Directorate of Professional Standards.

2. In a small number of categories there are no longer any minority ethnic officers represented. The categories where they are absent tend to be those where the actual numbers are low. This highlights some of the difficulties in identifying trends and patterns where the data is small.

3. The diversity information currently contains Police Officer data only. This will be reviewed again once Police Staff appear on the Complaints and Discipline System (CDS) database. This awaits a technical solution to the interface between the CDS and the MPS Human Resource system (MetHR).

Discriminatory behaviour Appendix 3, Row 5

4. The ethnicity and gender of the complainants making allegations of Discriminatory Behaviour have been further broken down into the IPCC introduced sub-categories of Faith/Religion, Gender, Homophobic, Disability, Other and Race. There is also a category for Mental Health but to date there have been no such allegations.

Further Research

5. DPS are working with the Institute of Criminology at Cambridge University to progress the research into disproportionality. This has been expanded to include both an ‘internal’ and ‘external’ dimension. The MPS Diversity Directorate has agreed to be co-sponsors of this research.

6. Cambridge are currently finalising Phase 1 of the research - scoping of existing data. Appropriate research will be reported back to the MPS on their findings.

7. A report will be submitted to this committee following the Cambridge Phase 1.

D. Financial implications

There are no financial implications arising from this report

E. Background papers

None.

F. Contact details

Report author(s): Michael Clark, Higher Performance Analyst, Department of Professional Standards and Carl Bussey, Detective Chief Superintendent, Department of Professional Standards

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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