Progress and Update

The Non-Criminal Complaints has a current backlog of unallocated
complaints at 1041, which is a reduction of 299 since the last
meeting. These can be broken down as follows – Cat A+ (4), Cat A
(406), Cat B (525) and Cat C (106). These figures have been taken
on 1 May 2025.

Over a three-month period, 2095 new complaints were received and
recorded. 49% (844) have been resolved by Front Line Resolution,
6% (106) have progressed to criminal complaints and 8% (133) to
non-criminal investigations.

NCARU Demand
The NCARU demand increased during the last three-month period
mainly due to a change in resourcing model with the introduction of
our police staff investigators. This resourcing model has been
altered based on feedback from the new staff and experienced
investigators. The total of new complaints awaiting assessment is
currently 393 having fallen from 500 at the start of the financial
year, the team process circa 25 – 50 complaints per day depending
on complexity, demand and resourcing. The NCARU continue to
maximise opportunities for First Line Resolution (FLR).

Departmental Restructure
T/Superintendent James Mann has recently taken up post from April
2025, having taken over from the previous Superintendent Kate
Stephen.

The recruitment of all 25 Police Staff Investigators previously
reported into Professional Standards has now been completed with
the majority now onboarded and posted to Non-Criminal
Investigations. A number of these staff investigators are still
undergoing training/mentoring to support them in their roles and
the full impact of this uplift will become clearer over future months.
The resourcing model has now been in place from 21 April 2025 and
will be implemented for a period of 3 months to assess progress.
The Proportionate Investigation Team (PIT) (1 PI & 1 PS and 4 PSM)
to separate from NCARU to work alongside 8 of the new police staff
investigators. This team will retain and investigate all Category B
enquiries assessed and triaged by NCARU.

The NCARU team plus 3 of the new police staff investigators are
now focusing on the assessment queue to triage / FLR and retain
any non-complex or non-investigation Category C complaints. This
has allowed the team to process between 20 – 50 complaints per
day depending on complexity and demand.

The legacy non-criminal team will continue to focus on complex CAT
A+ and CAT A investigations with the new police staff investigators.
The change in model coupled with ‘days of action’ within non criminal investigations has already seen a reduction in unallocated enquiries since the last reporting period. It is anticipated that the numbers will continue to reduce in a gradual manner with the
increase in experience that the police staff investigators gain after their initial training/mentorship.

Additional Resource – Task Force
The additional staff secured from local policing for the Task Force remain in place to support PSD during this period of high demand, overseen and supported by permanent PSD staff.

Complaint Treatment/Prioritisation
Each morning, all new correspondence within the Professional Standards mailboxes is triaged by NCARU to identify any; vulnerabilities, criminal matters, reputational risk, potential escalation; or correspondence from MP’s / Elected Members and Partner Agencies – these are highlighted to SMT each morning.

Every new non-criminal complaint will then undergo a robust review by an NCARU supervisor who will assess the priority under one of the following categories, identifying those which need to be prioritised.

Category A+ - Significant reputational risk/media attention or of a
complexity it requires a senior officer to review.
Category A - Complex complaints or those that require protracted
investigation.
Category B - Standard, non-complex complaints where a
proportionate investigation can be applied.
Category C - Complaints suitable for FLR.
Once passed to the non-criminal investigation team, the complaint will move to the unallocated queue but will be further prioritised by supervisors in terms of grading, risk and age of complaint within the unallocated queue.

Further Considerations
Following the actions described, including the implementation of the new internal structure within Non-Criminal Complaints Investigations and NCARU, an exercise will be undertaken after 3 months to establish benefits achieved, identify further opportunities and address any potential unforeseen consequences. With the focus continuing to be on the number of unallocated complaints awaiting investigation and the categories of those complaints.