News and Media
Northern Ireland to Lead the Way in Police Complaints Information
Thursday 15 January 2004
For the first time ever in Northern Ireland, detailed and localised information about police complaints will be made readily available to the police and the public through a new initiative by the Police Ombudsman's Office and developed by Biznet Solutions.
This new initiative will mean that the public in Northern Ireland will now have more such information than is made readily available in Great Britain or the Irish Republic.
Until the establishment of the Police Ombudsman's Office, comparatively little information was routinely made available about the nature of the complaints made against the police and how they were resolved.
By logging onto the Police Ombudsman website at www.policeombudsman.org , information which was normally only available for senior police officers will be available for the public and the local District Policing Partnerships. The site will for the first time make public details from Police Ombudsman investigation reports which have been forwarded to the Secretary of State and PSNI Chief Constable. Many of these investigations into the discharge of weapons in various situations, including public disturbances.
The Police Ombusdsman, Mrs Nuala O'Loan, has said this new initiative has involved a lot of hard work by her Public Information team and by Biznet Solutions:
"I think it would be fair to say that in the past the information routinely made available about complaints against the police was very limited. It was usually only confined to statistical data and tended to be contained in summary form in corporate documents. That also still seems to be the case in other jurisdictions."
Managing Partner of Biznet Solutions, Adrian Bradley, speaking after the launch said "The team working in the Police Ombudsman's Office were determined to make as much detailed information available to the public as possible. It was part of our task to help them present that material in a way which was easily accessible.
Through working with a dedicated and committed team we have produced a website which people can easily access at various levels and should be of interest to both members of the public and to those with a detailed interest in this topic".