Is there a police force worse than West Yorkshire police? #BeTheBillboard #LetWomenSpeak

https://www.thetelegraphandarg....us.co.uk/news/197240

WEST Yorkshire Police had the second most allegations made against it for discriminatory behaviour across all the country's forces last year, new data has revealed.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has published figures on police complaints made in 2020/21.

There were 341 allegations made against West Yorkshire police that were logged as "discriminatory behaviour", between April 2020 and April 2021.

This is second only to the Metropolitan Police (692) and 108 more than the next closest (West Midlands Police).

It represents nine per cent of all allegations of this nature complained about against all forces across the country in 2020/21.

The data focuses on complaints made by dissatisfied members of the public against officers and the way certain situations are handled.

West Yorkshire Police logged 3,234 complaints in total last year - the fifth highest in the country.

A complaint can comprise of multiple allegations, meaning the figure for the latter is usually higher.

There were 109,151 allegations recorded in total by all the country's forces in 2020/21.

West Yorkshire Police logged 4,909 allegations in that time - the second highest in the country and around 4.5 per cent of all allegations nationally.

There were 16 allegations put to the force across the year relating to sexual conduct (the joint third highest in the country).

Other reasons for complaints included, issues with the delivery of duties and services (2,530 allegations), access and/or disclosure of information (135), use of police vehicles (58) and abuse of position/corruption (102).

Complaints and allegations made against the police can be dealt with informally, or formally under Schedule 3 of the Police Reform Act 2002.

The complaint is escalated to be dealt with formally if allegations are serious, or there is a lack of satisfaction with an informal resolution.

Most of the allegations against West Yorkshire Police (2,039 and 54 per cent) were dealt with formally, but then not investigated further.

There were 1,634 (43 per cent) allegations solved informally, with just 87 (two per cent) investigated after being treated formally.

West Yorkshire Police managed to beat the national figure for average days taken to log complaints (five compared to six) and average number of days to contact complainants (five compared to seven).

Detective Superintendent Mark Long, of West Yorkshire Police's Professional Standards Directorate, said: “Our officers and staff interact with thousands of people on a daily basis and the vast majority of members of the public are satisfied with the service they receive.

"It is vital though that there is an effective system in place should someone have reason to complain.

“West Yorkshire Police is one of the largest police forces in England and Wales, which is reflected in the number of complaints we have recorded in the past year; however when looked at by the number of complaints per 1,000 employees, we are in line with the national average."

“While in an ideal world we would want to be in a position where there are no upheld complaints, unfortunately this is not the case.

"What is vital though is that we listen to what complainants are telling us and use it to improve our service in the future.

“We have done a lot of work internally to promote the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Behaviour that are expected of everyone working in the police service.

"In recent years we have also introduced mandatory training in unconscious bias and abuse of position for a sexual purpose.”