To ask whether anyone has made a complaint about police and had a positive outcome?

[Chinchinatti]

I've made a complaint against police and bodycams were not turned on for the first half of the encounter (I was not aware of this until I made the complaint). It's now with the Professional Standards something or another but they're very very slow to act. Last I heard was two weeks ago and I emailed yesterday and was informed this morning that I will receive an update every 28 days. Is this bloody acceptable?

Op, you asked if you would be on a system. I have tried to explain that there is no such system however Professor is determined in her anti police sentiment to twist my posts.

Your card is not marked.

And no intel is not available to every police officer. I submitted intelligence about a incident relating to a police officer recently, it has been sanitised and only avail be to officers with that access level. Others can’t see it.

I work in a police complaints department. We cover a huge area with a large population and there are 4 of us dealing with over 200 complaints, internal conduct matters and some other bits that are time consuming. We have a backlog of complaints we haven't got round to yet, sorry. I hate it. But we have so many complainants and so many officers it's just impossible that your cards will be marked.

Will you get a fair investigation? I would hope so. Every investigation I go into is with an open mind. I know coppers can make mistakes or be deliberately shit. I also know that what a complaint perceives isn't always supported by the evidence. Doesn't mean that complainants will like the answers but my success rates with IOPC appeals supports my belief I'm doing a good job, and if you believe nothing else believe me when I say the IOPC are not on the side of the police.

Chinchinatti he abused his position as a policeman. They took it really seriously., and were extremely supportive
It wasn't the sort of situation that I expected an apology. They did apologise that it was not the way a policeman should behave. They were brilliant. Much respect for them
I hope it works out as well for you
If you need to contact your local councillor, it won't hurt

however Professor is determined in her anti police sentiment to twist my posts.

You'll find a lot of posts where I repeatedly state that I appreciate the job the police do. Asking they be held to account - especially given the asymmetry of power between subject and officer - is not "anti police".

Also you won't find any posts where I have referred to my sex, gender or inside leg measurement.

Oh for god sake I knew you would do that. Apologies. She/He/they

I do wonder why people bother complaining - the sheer stress and gaslighting of it is enough to put me off entirely.

What would you cal an satisfactory outcome’?

Getting someone sacked? Yabu.... it takes time and is not a priority

DahliaDay - given slightly different circumstances, I could have died as a direct result of their conduct (the bit that's not on camera). Subsequent to that I was treated with brute force by 2 FEMALE officers.

What do you think would be a satisfactory outcome for those officers?
You have assumed I want them sacked. Put it this way, I wouldn't like to come across either of the pair of them again. So - should they be police officers? Not my call to make. But they put my life at stake and then treated me like a criminal. So what do I call a satisfactory outcome? One where they are prevented from doing anything similar ever again - whatever course of action that may be.

VladmirsPoutine I know. For the benefit of my sanity I'm presuming that no action will be taken, that two cops will be believed over one civilian. So I'm not going to lose sleep over it. I've done my civic duty and the duty that I owe to myself. Whatever the 'powers' that be decide, will not affect me one way or another.

That said, it has totally tarnished my view of the police force and I would never cooperate with police officers again in my life.

@Chinchinatti Sadly my view of the police is in tatters. My husband accepted a caution last year (to keep his career intact) for an incident which we knew was totally fabricated by a neighbor. In hindsight he shouldn't have accepted the caution last year but we just needed the thing gone. Long story short the policeman who investigated the event last year was a personal friend of our bully neighbor, which was partly why we knew it was rigged. Last week, another event triggered us to at last put in a formal complaint about it to our constabulary, we asked to see all the evidence under Freedom of Information, and for the case to be reviewed.
On Monday, the policeman who investigated last year turned up at our house with another officer, and arrested my husband on trumped up charges and he was put in a cell for 8 hours before being questioned and released. This was very obviously bullying and intimidation to get us to withdraw our complaint. We haven't. But I am totally shocked and never would have believed it before. The experience has devastated my husband. Sadly there are a few very very bad apples among them.

Hidden text, why on earth didn’t he have a solicitor?

I know a few people who have been, shall we say, persuaded to accept a caution. Basically influenced not to have a solicitor. One of them was told by an officer that if he insisted on having a solicitor then he'd lose the option of a caution! Clearly that was a bluff but people get scared, especially if you've never had anything to do with the police.

Also people often don't understand the implications of accepting a caution because some police officers may give the impression it is a mere slap on the wrist/ of no consequence.

He had the duty solicitor first time, they're pretty useless. Monday's event we were caught by surprise couldn't get a solicitor short notice so used duty one again.

My golden rule of police custody was always "no comment" with or without the duty solicitor. Generally then bailed "under investigation" charges dropped a few weeks later by the CPS. To be honest though I was always arrested as "in connection with" and I knew I had done nothing wrong, I was just part of a poor peer group but never got my fingers in to anything criminal, and never would. It was literally guilty by association!

I have a clean criminal record, and I have genuinely never broken the law. They only did it a handful of times and pretty much figured out in the end, I wasn't one of the gang to be looking at for criminal behaviour I was just dossing and hanging out in the house because I was homeless.

Unfortunately people often make spurious, disgusting and entirely falsified complaints against the police ALL the time.
Your complaint is one of many. You either want it investigated proprly or you want it investigated quickly. So yes, YABU.

@Hiddentext That is awful. Total abuse of power. I wouldn't bank on it OP birds of a feather flock together.

The thing about bad apples is that it only takes a couple to spoil the whole barrel.

Made a complaint - Yes

Successful outcome - Nope

To put things simply, the police raided my house, looking for someone, they broke my fencing and s concrete upright to enable them to get in the garden, then smashed in the door, breaking the door and the frame. I complained about the damage. Unfortunately it turned out that it's acceptable for them to cause thousands of pounds worth of damage during a "raid" ... The kicker being they were at the wrong house and the person they were actually looking for was already in police custody, I still get in a rage every time I think about it.

I bet you're right, they'll close ranks, your word against theirs, always handy that bodycams aren't turned on when it could go in your favour not the police, they play by their own rules

Dimples - yes, they're not going to admit that they were wrong.

Anyway, I don't even know why they bother with this farce of investigating. Pure bollocks.

No point complaining when it's police investigating police. They stick up for their own.

Op, have you noticed that you had a reply from someone who works in police complaints? That poster may be able to advise you rather than just assuming it won’t be taken seriously.

Yes Nicknacky I've read her replies, but it's hard as an outsider to trust an organisation who has treated you badly, particularly when they're not exactly accountable.

Not sure if it was you nicknacky or another police officer posting who said 'we get so many complaints'. As if a complaint was nothing and that many complaints was something to brush off.

If I had a company and was getting hundreds of complaints I wouldn't be like 'oh everyone is complaining', I'd be like 'FFS what are you guys doing wrong?' to my employees. Not everyone can be wrong. So if they're getting 1000's of complaints, that should tell them something. But we'll see how it fares out.
As my brother said to me, 'they're supposed to talk you down from a ledge, not tell you to jump'.

We do get lots of complaints. It doesn’t always mean that the complaints are upheld.

I was complained about as we spoke to a man who called us cunts. He complained about that.

I was accused of assault when arresting someone. However it was easily shown from the incidents log that I wasn’t assigned to the call until after the arrest so I wasn’t even there for it.

You can’t help complaints sometimes.