IF POLICE officer numbers are reduced and workloads are increased, then complaints against cops in England and Wales are going to go up.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the view from South Yorkshire Police Federation. \u201cWe\u2019re all human\u2026 we have breaking points,\u201d said Chairman Neil Bowles.<\/p>\n
He was responding to an Independent Police Complaints Commission report that\u00a0showed a slight rise of 6% in complaints against police officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are going to make mistakes, people are going to get short tempered and I bet most of those complaints are in civility or neglect of work. It\u2019s just bound to happen and things are going to break.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can educate officers as much as we can about keeping themselves out of trouble, but we\u2019re all human. We have breaking points.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re going to reduce numbers and increase workload then complaints are going to go up.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also emerged in the IPCC report that the average time it takes to settle grievances has increased by almost two weeks over the past year.<\/p>\n
The organisation\u2019s annual report into complaints statistics showed that the time taken to resolve complaints in 2014\/15 had increased to 147 days, 12 days longer than the year before.<\/p>\n
Mr Bowles added: \u201cThe IPCC certainly don\u2019t publicise how many complaints are actually substantiated compared to the amount that are made. They don\u2019t publicise the amount of time that they take investigating the complaint which is far longer than any police force Professional Standards Department. I think they make announcements to serve themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n