90% of misconduct claims against police result in no action in force that serves Milton Keynes

More than 90% of allegations made against Thames Valley Police officers last year resulted in no misconduct action, new figures show.

Across England and Wales, the proportion of allegations not seeing further action remained unchanged from the year before at 89%, which experts said shows a lack of police accountability.

Home Office figures show 3,783 misconduct allegations were made against Thames Valley Police officers and handled under the formal complaints process in the year to March 2023 – slightly up from 3,757 the year before.

Of these, 3,753 were either not investigated, or investigated not subject to special procedures, with 3,459 (92%) resulting in no further action.

There were just 10 allegations leading to misconduct proceedings, while 110 were withdrawn.

The figures cover the total number of allegations rather than the number of complaints – one complaint could contain several allegations of misconduct. They do not cover any complaints handled outside the formal process, where it was felt a detailed enquiry was not needed.

There were 86,160 complaint allegations involving police officers in the country last year – fewer than 87,768 the year before.

Oliver Feeley-Sprague, Amnesty International UK’s military, security and police programme director, said: “Police accountability cannot function in a system where the police are largely responsible for investigating themselves.

“Given growing concerns over police conduct, particularly with over-policing of marginalised communities, we need to ensure there is better independent oversight where complaints are thoroughly investigated. People need to have confidence that misconduct is taken seriously, and that police officers don’t operate in a climate of near impunity.”

Nationally, there was a 33% rise in the number of “recordable conduct matter” allegations, from 1,802 in 2021-22 to 2,402 last year. These are complaints where it is alleged a police officer's conduct resulted in a death or serious injury.

The figures show 76 “recordable conduct matter” allegations were made against Thames Valley Police officers, with 43 referred to misconduct proceedings, while no action was required in 12 of them.

There were 5,363 allegations of “conduct matter” made against police forces nationally, 113 of which were in Thames Valley. These are allegations indicating an officer may have committed a criminal offence or behaved in a way that would justify disciplinary proceedings.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct, which investigates the most serious police misconduct allegations, said not all complaints relate to alleged misconduct, but could simply be an expression of dissatisfaction, with no further action required.

A spokesperson said: “Changes to the complaints system, which included widening the definition of a complaint, have had the expected result of increasing the number of complaints recorded by force in recent years.

“The law also recognises that many complaints will not require a lengthy investigation and a range of options, such as organisational or individual learning, as well providing an explanation or apology, are available to resolve these.

“We continue to work with professional standards departments to help improve initial complaint handling, which will benefit both the police and the public.