Published Date: 14.02.2006

Most people in Northern Ireland who make complaints about police do not appear to
support any political party, research by the Police Ombudsman's Office has
indicated.

Figures released by the Office also indicate that the majority of people making complaints described themselves as Protestant, while there has been a slight fall in the number of Catholics using the system.

These figures are contained in an 'Equality Monitoring Report' which has just been published by the Office's Policy and Practice Directorate.

In order to ensure that it provides a service that meets its equality obligations under law, the Police Ombudsman's Office asks those making complaints to complete a questionnaire about their community background.

Since it opened in November 2000, the Office has received complaints about the police from in excess of 14 thousand people. More than 4,000 of them provided details of their background.

In 2004 the Office also asked a number of additional questions of people, including one about their political opinions. (482 people, or 12% of people who returned forms, responded).

Most of those people who responded - 41% - said they did not support any political party.

Of those who said they had an interest in politics, the majority of people said they supported the DUP - 26%. The figures for the other main parties were: SDLP 11%, UUP 8% Sinn Fein 7 % and Alliance 3%. (Other, 4%)

As regards community background, the figures for the five years since the Office opened show that a total of 49% of respondents said they belong to one of the main Protestant denominations. 38% of respondents said they were Catholic. The remainder described their religion as 'other' or none:

The main figures for Protestant people making complaints were as follows: Presbyterian 24%, Church of Ireland 21% and Methodist 8%.

The Police Ombudsman, Mrs Nuala O'Loan, said the figures indicated that the people using her Office are broadly reflective of the composition within the community:

The figures for people from the Protestant community have remained fairly steady over the years, while there was a slight drop in the number of Catholics using the system.

"What may be of particular interest, however, is the fact that the proportion of people who said they did not follow any religious belief has risen from less than one percent to nine percent."

Among the other trends indicated in the Report are:

97% of people making complaints since the Office opened were White and 0.5% were Irish Travellers;

28% of people making complaints since the Office opened reported that they had a disability;

24% of people making complaints last year were women, an increase of 4% from 2001 and

Less that 1% of people making complaints since the Office opened said they were homosexual/gay.

Full details of the findings in the Report are available here.