THE annual report by the Police Ombudsman has revealed that complaints against the PSNI are at their highest level since the force was created, however allegations of misconduct by police in the Newry and Mourne area have fallen.
In total there were 3,528 complaints made against police officers in Northern Ireland in the past year, a 14 per cent increase on the 2008/2009 figures.
It’s also the highest number of complaints since the force began officially operating in 2001, when 3,600 complaints were lodged.
Of the allegations made against police for the 2009/2010 period, 196 came from the Newry and Mourne area, a slight decrease on the 2008/2009 statistics when 205 allegations were made.
In a further shift from traditional trends, the majority of complaints made came from members of the Protestant community.
A total of 47 per cent of complainants identified themselves as Protestant, an increase on 44 per cent the previous year, while 34 per cent of those lodging complaints claimed to members of the Catholic community, a drop from 39 per cent in the 2008/2009 report.
Local politicians have given a mixed reaction to the overall statistics regarding allegations against police in the north, and a cautious welcome to the drop in complaints in Newry. Dominic Bradley said the content of the complaints reveal more than the quantity.
“More and more people are inclined to bring forward what we might call ordinary complaints about policing, such as not taking break-ins seriously enough,” he said.
“We hear little of the sort of discourtesy and bad manners that people talked about a decade or more ago”.
The SDLP MLA offered a suggestion as to why complaints have risen.
“Unfortunately we can probably expect the number of complaints to rise, as police response times in much of the local area have got to be constrained by common sense when there are people dedicated to murdering officers,” he said.
DPP member Brendan Curran suggested that the overall rise in complaints may not have entirely negative connotations.
“It may be a sign that the public are becoming more confident in the administration of justice in the six counties and they feel empowered to complain about issues that they are not satisfied with,” he said.
Area Commander for Newry and Mourne, Chief Inspector Sam Cordner said he was pleased with the reduction in Newry.
"The Police Service is currently developing a proactive complaint reduction strategy which will help us to further enhance our level of service to the community,” he said.
“We expect police officers to behave, at all times, in accordance with the Code of Ethics and where this appears not to be the case, encourage individuals to make a complaint to the Police Ombudsman.”