West Yorkshire Police criticised for poor discrimination complaints handling

Three police forces, including West Yorkshire Police, have been criticised by the police watchdog for "poor" handling of discrimination complaints.

The West Yorkshire, West Midlands and Greater Manchester forces were accused of "significant" failings in the way they dealt with allegations of discrimination, in an Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) report.

The IPCC said the criticisms applied in particular to discrimination complaints brought by members of the public, which it said were "poorly handled from beginning to end".

Too many complaints about discrimination from the public were resolved locally - without a formal investigation - when it was not appropriate to do so, the report found.

The quality of the local resolutions was also poorer than that of formal investigations, it added.

Of 170 complaints from the public - out of 202 complaints in total examined by the IPCC alleging discrimination - 94 were investigated and, of those, no discrimination allegations were upheld, it said.

Yet overall, the three forces upheld between 11% and 13% of complaint allegations from the public, the report stated.

By contrast, more than half of the 32 investigations into discrimination allegations studied by the watchdog which had been raised by the police themselves were upheld, the watchdog found .