Guernsey Press

Home Affairs declines to reply to questions on complaints about police

REQUESTS for information about the number of complaints made against police officers over the last 10 years have gone largely unanswered by Home Affairs.

Published
(Picture by Sophie Rabey, 31934178)

It cited an exemption that it would require too many resources to provide the answers.

A total of 21 questions were asked under the Freedom of Information Code, with many relating to the number of complaints against officers and how they were dealt with.

Others related to the force’s budget, with Home’s response pointing to the official States accounts.

Questions asked included the average time it took for a complaint against a Guernsey police officer below the rank of superintendent to be resolved, and requested year-on-year figures covering the last decade.

‘Every effort is made to resolve complaints in a timely manner and the number of complaints are published in the police annual reports,’ said the reply.

But it said it was unable to provide the details requested.

Home said that complaints were not recorded in a system that enabled easy access to the information.

Getting the full answer would need the ‘unreasonable diversion of resources’ to search paper and electronic files.

Another question about the time taken to resolve complaints against more senior officers received a similar response.

The committee added that the answer could lead to ‘the unwarranted disclosure of personal information’, which would breach data protection laws.

Home was also asked how many times an outside police force was used as the ‘appropriate authority’ to look into complaints against local officers.

It said that the appropriate authority was generally the committee itself or the Chief of Police.

It was not possible to delegate the responsibility of the appropriate authority, it said, however an officer from an outside police force may be appointed to investigate a complaint.

‘The appropriate authority would then consider that investigation and make a determination’.

In response to a question about how much taxpayers’ money was budgeted for the defence of officers annually over 10 years, Home said that no funds were budgeted solely for this purpose.

A question asking for how much was spent on the defence of officers over 10 years was not answered, with the committee again saying that it would require

too many resources to provide the information.

The head of law enforcement

had autonomy for allocating the budget, but was accountable to Home Affairs, the committee said in response to other questions.

Four other questions – the number of times Guernsey Police had been taken to court over the last 10 years, how much money was paid to settle legal issues in and out of court, and how many times this was done – were not answered, with Home once more citing the resources issue.