NCJ Number
136430
Date Published
1987
Length
103 pages
Annotation
The British Police and Criminal Evidence (PACE) Act 1984 instituted some changes in police procedures for dealing with citizen complaints. This research was undertaken to obtain the views of complainants whose grievances had been handled according to pre-PACE guidelines to establish a baseline against which current procedures could be evaluated.
Abstract
A sample of 105 complainants completed the interview survey; most of the sample were white, male, and working class. About 20 percent of the complaints had been substantiated, and the remainder were either not substantiated or withdrawn. The grievances covered a wide range of alleged police misconduct including incivility, assault, irregular procedure, corrupt practice, and harassment. The survey findings showed that 60 percent of complainants reported overall dissatisfaction with the procedure, while 20 percent had mixed feelings, and less than 20 percent were satisfied. The most important aspects of satisfaction were whether the complainant had achieved his objectives in complaining and how the police treated the complainants during the process. Many of the respondents were dissatisfied because of the internal nature of the investigations into their complaints. Respondents who withdrew their complaints usually did so because they had accepted an informal settlement or because they were dissatisfied with the complaint procedure. Almost 60 percent of the complainants reported proper or improper police discouragement in pursuing their complaints. 4 appendixes