Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Police’s handling of a crime investigation or how the Authority had oversight of the Police’s investigations. These matters are excluded from our jurisdiction. Nor will we investigate how the Authority conducted X’s complaint review request, because we cannot carry out a meaningful investigation and there is no worthwhile outcome we can achieve.

The complaint

1. X said the Authority failed to properly hold the Police to account, because they were dissatisfied with how it carried out a crime investigation, as well as a complaint they made to Police about that matter.
2. X was also unhappy with the way the Authority carried out a complaint review.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We cannot investigate a complaint if it is about action taken by or on behalf of any local policing body in connection with the investigation or prevention of crime. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, Section 26, paragraph 2 as amended)
4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
5. The courts have said we can decide not to investigate a complaint about any action by an organisation concerning a matter which the law says we cannot investigate. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. X said they were a victim of crime and was dissatisfied with the outcome of the Police’s investigations. X made a complaint against Police and complained the Authority did not properly hold the Police to account. We cannot investigate this part of X’s complaint for the reasons I have set out in paragraph 3.
8. Nor will we investigate the administrative actions of the Authority in relation to a complaint review it carried out. This is because we cannot carry out a meaningful investigation due to the fact we are excluded from looking at the substantive issue X complained about. And nor can we achieve the outcome X wants in any case. Therefore, there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by us investigating that aspect.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate X’s complaint because part of it is out of our jurisdiction and there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by us investigating the parts that we could look at.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman