Complaints against Met rise to over 5,000

Complaints against the Met rose by 15 per cent last year to more than 5,000, official figures revealed today.

A report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission also shows that this year's total of 5,532 complaints is 56 per cent higher than the figure two years ago.

A fifth of those raising grievances were black, but only six per cent were Asian, although the ethnicity of 41 per cent of complainants is recorded as unknown.

Despite the surge, only 124 were upheld out of more than 2,000 official investigations completed during the 12 months to the end of March.

Nearly 3,000 other cases were resolved directly between the complainant and local officers.

Today's figures will raise some concerns about the Met's performance, although the force insisted that the increase was due largely to the increased willingness of people to complain.

The Met statistics were revealed as national figures showed complaints against police officers have almost doubled in the past three years. Across the country, just under 29,0000 were registered by the IPCC in 2006/07.