Thank you for your interest in this story
To continue reading this article, subscribe to the Stray Ferret for as little as £1 a week
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
20
Jan 2023
More than 700 complaints against North Yorkshire Police officers in a year
More than 700 complaints were made against North Yorkshire Police officers in a year, the force has revealed.
The 740 complaints from members of the public were made against 352 individual officers between April 2021 and April 2022.
The statistic has been released by North Yorkshire Police as part of its response to national news stories about David Carrick. The Met Police officer had several allegations made against him over a period of 20 years, but did not face any charges or misconduct proceedings at work.
This week, he admitted 49 charges of sexual abuse, including rape, beginning as early as 2003. He was only arrested in October 2021.
The Met has since said more than 1,600 allegations against more than 1,000 officers and staff were being reviewed as a result of Carrick's case.
A spokesperson for North Yorkshire Police said:
Of the 740 complaints made against North Yorkshire Police officers, the force said there could be several relating to a single incident.
Those complaints did not amount to the same thing as misconduct, it said: some could be about an officer failing to keep a victim of crime updated on progress in their case, for example.
The Stray Ferret asked North Yorkshire Police how many of the complaints were matters of misconduct, or how many related to allegations of sexual offences, abuse, coercive control or other related offences.
We also asked how many complaints were investigated and how many resulted in disciplinary action being taken against the officer, but we had not received a response by the time of publication.
Read more:
- 'Serious concerns' over North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue finances, say inspectors
- Met Police serial rapist case 'abhorrent', says North Yorkshire chief constable
The force publishes details of gross misconduct hearings on its website. Those cases reveal that, during the same period (April 2021 to April 2022), five police constables, one sergeant and two detective constables were found to have behaved in ways amounting to gross misconduct.
Three of those cases involved inappropriate relationships with victims of crime or other people known to the police. One followed a conviction for possession of indecent images of children.
North Yorkshire Police has been part of a pilot scheme checking all vetted staff against the police national database (PND) every month, aiming to ensure any complaints and contact made with other forces would be noticed by North Yorkshire's professional standards department.
A recent report by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire and Rescue Service highlighted North Yorkshire Police's efforts in vetting, misconduct and misogyny. It recommended all forces should make use of the PND to check their own officers and staff - and this week, it was announced all forces in England and Wales will begin doing so.
The spokesperson added:
0