Complaints about police force that serves Milton Keynes have risen significantly, data shows

Complaints against Thames Valley Police officers have risen by 73% within a year, analysis of Home Office records have shown.

A study by WhatsApp platform Movius.ai looked at recently published records on police misconduct in England and Wales.

Their analysis showed there were 4,585 complaint allegations made against police officers at Thames Valley Police in the year to March 2022, compared to 2,649 in the previous year.

This made Thames Valley Polic the police force with the sixth highest number of complaint allegations against its police officers in England and Wales.

The number of cases of complaints made against police officers nationally also increased in the same year, rising from 48,979 complaint cases (and 87,786 allegations overall) made against police officers in the last year compared to just 14,393 complaint cases in the previous year. This was a rise of 240%.

Since 2021, a string of public scandals involving police officers, such as the Sarah Everard case, have helped to cast doubt on the reputation of policing across England and Wales.

A recent Channel 5 documentary, ‘Wayne Couzens: Killer in Plain Sight’, has recently shed new light on Sarah Everard’s case and highlighted several ‘red flags’ that were not adequately investigated prior to her murder.

This included WhatsApp messages that joked about rape, which Couzens shared with several of his colleagues. The Met also came under fire last year when it emerged that another Met officer disciplined after an inquiry into misogynistic and racist messages has since been promoted.

Of all the complaints made against police officers in England and Wales, 6.22% (5,461) of complaint cases were related to abuse of position, corruption, discriminatory behaviour, or sexual conduct. 1,803 complaints were also made about officers’ accessing, handling, and disclosing of sensitive information. Nine police officers in England and Wales were dismissed the last year of the most recent records, despite the rise in complaints.

John Clear, Vice President at Movius, said “More people are coming forward to make police complaints following cases such as Sarah Everard’s, and our research suggests the public is becoming increasingly concerned about police discrimination and how officers are communicating over sensitive issues.

“While it is positive to see the Met take some steps to tighten up the rules on officers’ use of platforms like WhatsApp and a new anti-corruption and abuse command, more needs to be done to tackle institutional norms at discrimination within the police at its heart.”

“In our experience public organisations that invest more time into monitoring and quickly addressing the use of discriminatory language, both on and off-line, often encourage more inclusive norms and a higher standard of behaviour that can benefit everyone,” John concluded.

Movius has launched a new workplace communications solution, the AI-powered MultiLine™ mobile app, that empowers organisations to monitor and address discriminatory language in the workplace quickly and easily. The app can notify managers when ‘red flag’ keywords are used within text conversations at work, by monitoring the use of words associated with sexual violence, sexism, racism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination.

The app is designed to help managers become aware of workplace discrimination in real time, empowering them to act quickly and work to discourage discriminatory norms early on.