Complainant Eligibility

In order to make a police complaint, you must be eligible to be a complainant. This is defined by the legislation as someone who has directly witnessed the incident or who is directly affected by it.

Complaints can be raised by other people on their behalf, but only with their written consent.

Therefore, if you are not directly affected or were not present at the incident that you have concerns about, you cannot use the police complaints system to make your concerns known.

You can still make your concerns known to the police force as part of general feedback HERE 

Further detail explaining eligibility can be found in Statutory Guidance and in Focus.

Go back to Making a Complaint