Guernsey's Police Complaints Law To Be Updated

Home Affairs is to bring a policy letter to the States before the June 2025 election, changing the process for complaints about Guernsey Police.

The existing law dates back to 2008 and Home Affairs says it has its limitations which can 'cause frustration for both complainants and Guernsey Police.'

The committee says a new law will promote confidence in both Guernsey Police and the complaints process. As in Britain, the committee believes that the Police are the best people to deal with complaints made against them.

It wants to assure people who have a complaint that it will be heard and acted on, and changes made to the way police operate, if necessary.

But the head of Home Affairs, Rob Prow, says it's important that false complaints are also dealt with under the revised law:

"We must ensure that legitimate complaints are robustly investigated. However, there is no current mechanism for an initial assessment of complaints to be made to establish the validity of the complaint, or for example if it is vexatious, as there is in other jurisdictions such as the UK. The Committee’s proposals will seek to address this."

He says Home Affairs wants to remove itself as the overseeing body for police complaints against senior staff:

"Under the current law we are required to oversee the process for complaints against senior officers. We think this responsibility should be removed from the Committee so there is greater independence."

Mr Prow says Guernsey has an excellent police force but, inevitably, there will be times when their actions are questioned:

"The police would acknowledge that it’s impossible for them to always get everything right, so it’s incredibly important that we have a robust process in place so that all parties can have confidence that complaints are addressed fairly. It’s important to both the committee and police for public trust to be maintained."