This fact sheet is aimed primarily at anyone who has a complaint about police and crime commissioners and who may be considering making a complaint to the Ombudsman.

Police and crime commissioners are elected to make sure the police service is effective and hold the chief constable to account. So almost everything they do is related to dealing with and preventing crime.

In some parts of the country, for example London, the commissioner role is carried out by the mayor. This factsheet is therefore relevant to complaints about this part of the mayor’s role.

In some parts of the country the commissioner is also responsible for fire and rescue services. Please see the separate factsheet about complaints about fire and rescue.

I want to complain about a police and crime commissioner. Can you investigate?

• The law that governs our work stops us from investigating complaints about policing bodies concerned with crime and prevention of crime. So, it is unlikely we can help with most complaints about police and crime commissioners.
• We can only potentially look at complaints about the actions of the commissioner and their office, not the police. Also, we cannot look at any actions by a commissioner that are connected with the investigation or prevention of crime. 
• If you want to complain about these matters you need to complain to the police or, for the most serious and sensitive matters, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (the IOPC) – www.policeconduct.gov.uk
• Most of the complaints we get are about how police and crime commissioners have dealt with complaints about the police. For example, complaints about how a police officer has behaved.
• We will not investigate these complaints. This is because most of them are about how the police have investigated or prevented crime. The law stops us investigating the police and stops us looking at how policing organisations have investigated or prevented crime. So, there is usually nothing we can usefully do to investigate how the commissioner has looked at the problem.
• This means there are very few types of complaint about police and crime commissioners that we can and will investigate. We could consider complaints about decisions such as purchasing or selling land, where the police commissioner is making decisions as a landlord. We can look at how the commissioner and their staff have made such decisions, following relevant law and guidance.
• But the law also says we cannot look at decisions that affect all or most residents that the commissioner serves. So, for instance, we cannot look at complaints about decisions the police commissioner makes to raise council tax.

How do I complain

• You should normally complain first to the Commissioner’s office.
• Then, if you are unhappy with the outcome, or the Commissioner’s office taking too long to look into the matter – we think 12 weeks is reasonable – you can complain to us.
• Usually, you should complain to us within 12 months of when you first knew about the problem. If you leave it any later, we may not be able to help.

My complaint is about what the police force has done, and how the Commissioner has failed to investigate these issues. Why can’t you look at this?

• The law stops us considering any complaints about how a policing organisation (such as the police service or the police and crime commissioner) has investigated or prevented crime.
• Also, we probably will not look at complaints about how a police and crime commissioner has dealt with complaints about police officers carrying out their duties because we cannot look at what is at the heart of the complaint (the police officer’s actions). 
• In other words, because we cannot investigate the police, we usually will not investigate complaints about how a commissioner has carried out their investigation into what the police have done.

I want to complain about how the police and crime panel has investigated the actions of the police and crime commissioner. Can you look at this?

• Police and crime panels scrutinise the work of police and crime commissioners. Often, at the heart of this type of complaint is really a concern about the investigation and prevention of crime by police officers.
• For example, someone who complains to the police about an officer who made an arrest, might then complain to the commissioner, then to the police and crime panel and then to us about the commissioner or the panel’s decisions.
• We cannot investigate the police, or the investigation / prevention of crime. So, we will not usually investigate how the commissioner, or the panel dealt with the complaint.
• Also, we cannot force sanctions on a commissioner or any other organisation. We cannot ‘get the commissioner sacked’ or disciplined or ask others to discipline the commissioner. Our recommendations are for consideration.
• The law also stops us getting involved in personnel disputes. So, we cannot, for example, investigate a complaint by a member of the commissioner’s staff, about how they have been treated by their employer. 
• Also, when deciding whether to investigate any complaint, we have to consider what injustice the person complaining has suffered because of the alleged mistakes. If we decide they suffered relatively minor injustice, we will not investigate.

How does your work relate to that of the Independent Office for Police Conduct?

• The independent office is the police complaints watchdog for England and Wales. It can investigate the most serious complaints and conduct matters involving the police. It sets the standards by which the police should handle complaints.
• We cannot investigate the police, or complaints about crime or the prevention of crime. We can only investigate administrative activities of police and crime commissioners.

Given you can look at so few types of police and crime commissioner complaints, what’s the point of you having this power?

• The law we work to dates from 1974. At that time, local police authorities were more closely part of local government. Police authorities made policy decisions about how police services operated but did not get involved in operational decisions. We could investigate complaints about police authorities, but not police services.
• When police and crime commissioners took over responsibility, we could investigate complaints about commissioners, but only complaints about actions that were not about crime and the prevention of crime. In reality, this covers an extremely limited number of circumstances. We believe the 1974 legislation that governs our work needs to be updated to reflect the changes in public services.

I work for the police and crime commissioner and want to complain about how they have treated me. Can you investigate?

• No. The law we have to work to stops us considering any complaint that is about how an organisation has dealt with a personnel or HR issue. So we cannot, for example, investigate a complaint about being sacked or disciplined by the organisation you work for.

Our fact sheets give some general information about the most common type of complaints we receive but they cannot cover every situation. If you are not sure whether we can look into your complaint, please call 0300 061 0614

May 2024