A total of 167,474 accusations resulted from 109,339 complaints. Of these, 125,581 accusations and 67,446 complaints had accused officers, accusing 16,022 unique officers.
The number of accusations (and complaints) filed declines greatly over time, reaching a peak of 1,165 accusations in a single month in August of 2002, and steadily dropping until the lowest complete month of data, May of 2016, with only 190 accusations. There are two main periods in this data set, before IPRA (Indepedent Police Review Authority) and after IPRA, which was announced on r and put in place on r.
IPRA changed the way many complaints were received and investigated. There is a noticable drop off in the number of accusations in the pre-IPRA period, reaching a low of 190 accusations in May of 2016. The number of accusations per month rises briefly in the post-IPRA period, until September of 2007, at 1,165 when the number of accusations peaked and declined almost continously until the end of the data.
As the complexity of any analysis would be greatly increased if data before IPRA was fully functional would increase dramatically, due to the obscurity and lack of accountability which prompted the reforms that led to IPRA’s creation, the rest of the summary will focus on the the period January of 2008, to our last full month of data December of 2015. This period is shown in the gray shading. Over the entire period, the number of accusations that are sustained, also shown on the plot below, remains low in comparison with the shear number of accusations.
Sample Complaints
The observations kept for the majority of this analysis occured between 2008 and 2015, while IPRA was fully active and there is sufficient time for accusations to be investigated and a final finding (sustained, no sustained, exonerated, etc.) to be determined, and had identified officers accused of misconduct. During the sample period, total of 49,690 accusations resulted from 25,951 complaints. Of these, 49,690 accusations and 25,951 complaints had accused officers, accusing 11,013 unique officers. The accusation count declined by 68.74 percent over this time period, from 835 accusations in the first month to 261 accusations in the last.