Organization : Police Ombudsman
Service Name : How To Make A Complaint
Country: Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Website : https://www.policeombudsman.org/Complaints/English
Police Ombudsman How To Make A Complaint
You can make a complaint:
** by phone on 0845 601 2931 (charged at local rate)
** by email – complaints@policeombudsman.org
** via our website – www.policeombudsman.org
Related : Labour Relations Agency Customer Complaints Procedure Northern Ireland : www.statusin.org/9268.html
** in writing to the address at the bottom of this page
** by calling at our office between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday (please call 0845 601 2931 to make an appointment)
** by fax on 028 9082 8659
** by textphone, for people with hearing impairment, on 028 9082 8756
Note:
* Telephone calls may be recorded for joint protection, training and other lawful purposes.
Please try to give us as much information as you can about the incident you are complaining about, including such things as:
** the day, time, date and exact location of the incident
** the name, shoulder number and a physical description of the officer(s) or employee involved
** the name, address and telephone number(s) of any witnesses
** the registration numbers of any vehicles involved in the incident
** any other helpful or relevant evidence, such as photographs or audio or video footage
Don’t worry if you can provide only some of this information. We will try to find whatever information we feel is relevant to your complaint.
You must make your complaint within one year of the incident you are concerned about.
In special circumstances, the Police Ombudsman can decide to investigate a complaint about something that happened more than a year before it was reported to us. This happens when the Police Ombudsman believes the complaint to be grave or exceptional.
If you are under 18 years of age you can find out more about making a complaint by clicking here
What will we do with your complaint?:
We will arrange to take details of your complaint and then decide how to deal with it.
We will tell you who is dealing with your complaint and give you as much information as we can at every stage of the complaints process. We will treat complainants and police officers fairly and equally.
If your complaint is about a less serious matter we may ask for your consent to refer it to the police for them to deal with. If you agree, the police will then contact you to discuss your complaint and try to reach a solution. We will check how the police have dealt with your complaint.
If we launch a formal investigation into your complaint we will gather evidence about what happened. This will include witness statements, and might include police records, video footage, police radio transmissions, medical records, forensic evidence and other information.
We will deal with your complaint as quickly as we can, but some complaints are very complicated and may involve many other people, such as witnesses, doctors or forensic staff. This may mean that it will take some time to investigate your complaint.
After you have made a complaint we may need to come back to you for further information. If we do so, we can only proceed with an investigation with your continuing co-operation.
What we cannot do:
There are some complaints we cannot deal with.
We cannot:
** Investigate complaints about an off-duty police officer, unless the fact he or she works for the police is relevant e.g. if they produce their warrant card or tell you they are a police officer
** Investigate complaints about off-duty police employees
** Investigate complaints about operational matters such as how many police officers are assigned to your area, the way police prioritise their work, or how they manage their operation
** Investigate complaints about traffic wardens
** Investigate complaints about retired police officers or employees, unless it is alleged that they broke the law while working for the police