Recommendation - Lincolnshire Police, December 2022
We identified organisational learning from a review following other handling. Communication restrictions (emails blocked) were put in place on a complainant's email address. They had access to one force email address and one officer email address. The complainant was not informed the restrictions were put in place. They continued emailing for a period of time regarding other cases. They were informed of the restrictions 19-21 months later. No audit trail was obtained regarding the restrictions and regular reviews were not conducted.
IOPC reference
Recommendations
The IOPC recommends that Lincolnshire Police should devise a unified, auditable process for handling unreasonable and unacceptable communications with service users. Consideration should be given to ensuring the process covers the needs of service users and how to fulfil them, along with an appropriate guidance for enforcing restrictions, with reference to force systems and decision-making protocols.
This follows an IOPC review of a complaint handled otherwise than by investigation by Lincolnshire Police, whereby a complainant’s emails were restricted (i.e. blocked) with only two force mailboxes able to receive emails from them. This was due to persistent emailing of which they would copy a number of people into those emails. However, the Inspector who enforced the restriction did not inform the complainant of the restrictions, nor did they review the restrictions to ensure they were still required. This resulted in the complainant contacting and providing information to email addresses about ongoing complaints and criminal matters that were never received. Due to no review of the restrictions, they remained in place for 19 months, when only by chance it came to the attention of a member of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and they were removed. The aim of this recommendation is to ensure that fair and reasonable measures are enforced, reviewed and evidenced.
Do you accept the recommendation?
Yes
Accepted action:
Thank you for your observations following our recent communication. Please don’t apologise I understand and thank you for the clarification.
As the construction consultation and implementation of any new policy is a protracted exercise. In view of your comments, we will now embark on establishing our own Lincolnshire Police Policy as it appears adopting the IOPC Guidance without one is insufficient.
It will be our intention that our policy mirrors that of the IOPC, including the definitions and menu of options available, so as to provide a consistent line to complainants based on a whole system approach. We will ensure that we identify a method for any complainants where this approach is adopted is provided with a suitable appeal process to any restrictions imposed.
We will update you as soon as this is complete.
Many thanks.