Police grumbles are on the slide

NEW figures have revealed that complaints against Oldham police have plummeted.

The Chronicle reported how annual grumbles about Greater Manchester Police had fallen by almost a third in the past two years from 1,886 to 1,273 — earning the force praise from the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Now a breakdown of the figures, which will go before Greater Manchester Police Authority’s Quality of Service Committee next Friday, has been made available.

Figures show the total number of complaint cases in Oldham falling from 141 in 2009/10 to 83 in 2010/11 — down 41 per cent.

The biggest number of complaints were alleging assault — this was down slightly from 44 to 40.

Incivility, or rudeness, fell from 44 to 26, mis-handling of property was down from 10 to two and failure of duty decreased from 40 to 15.

Complaints alleging unnecessary arrest fell from five to two, discriminatory behaviour from six to two and lack of fairness from 24 to 10. Only two of the complaints were referred to the IPCC compared with seven the previous year.