Mary Moss
Dear Ms Moss,
Thank you for your email. My decision letter dated 26 March 2023 adequately sets out the rationale for my decision, and the steps you may wish to consider should you wish to request any additional information about the complaint you previously made.
I again invite you to provide any information which might assist the IOPC in identifying the status of any complaint you previously made to us.
Yours sincerely,
Vanessa
Mary Moss
Owner
One Percent 4 ART
Ms Mary Moss
26 March 2024
Dear Ms Moss,
This letter is about your application for a review of the complaint decision by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) which we received on 11 December 2023.
The IOPC is independent of the police.1 Our role is to decide whether your complaint against the MPS was handled correctly and the outcome was reasonable and proportionate. This decision was communicated to you by PC Lewsley in a letter dated 22 November 2023.
We have not investigated your complaint as part of this review.
In deciding whether the outcome was reasonable and proportionate, I have considered whether:
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the complaint handler engaged with you to fully understand and address your complaint
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the complaint handler conducted adequate enquiries and considered relevant information
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the conclusion was logical, appropriate and evidence-based
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reasonable actions were taken to address your complaint
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any potential for learning was identified as part of the process.
You may like to read a copy of our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to help you understand more about how we make our decisions, including a definition of what we mean by ‘reasonable and proportionate’. I have included a copy of our FAQs with this letter.
1 Our legal powers and duties are set out in paragraph 6A of Schedule 3 of the Police Reform Act 2002 and Regulation 29 of the Police (Complaints and Misconduct) Regulations 2020.
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My decision
I have concluded that the outcome of your complaint WAS reasonable and proportionate. Therefore your application for review is NOT UPHELD.
When making my decision, I have considered:
▪ Your original complaint dated 15 April 2023.
▪ Your application for review letter dated 11 December 2023.
▪ Supplementary material you have sent in support of your application.
▪ The report prepared by the Complaint Handler (CH) PC Lewsley dated 22 November
2023 and the evidence referred to in their report.
Application for review
In your application for review dated 11 December 2023, you asked me to review the IO’s findings regarding the reasons for the welfare visit and you queried the information provided to you regarding GDPR. You also referred to information provided to you by the CH regarding the outcome of a previous complaint that you made to the MPS regarding your brother’s treatment. You asserted that you have no record of the IOPC’s decision.
Complaint
Following an incident on 3 March 2023 involving your neighbour, officers from the MPS
visited your home in order to speak with you. You submitted a complaint on 15 April 2023
in which you alleged the police were overzealous in their actions over a noise complaint. In
your view, the police wished to harm you by arresting you because you are in litigation with
the Chief Constable of the MPS.
I am satisfied that the CH has engaged with you and has taken all reasonable steps to understand your complaint and address your concerns, which were accurately summarised in the outcome letter.
My Assessment
I am satisfied that the CH has conducted reasonable and proportionate enquiries and
considered relevant information.
I consider that the conclusion was logical, appropriate and evidence-based and that reasonable actions were taken to address your complaint.
Accordingly, I consider the overall outcome to be reasonable and proportionate.
My rationale
I note that the CH’s outcome letter summarised the information and evidence which was
obtained and considered during the handling of your complaint. I have carefully reviewed
the information submitted with the background papers, and in my view, the summary
provided in the CH’s outcome letter accurately reflects this information.
I have reviewed the emails sent between you and PC Czinege from the MPS 2
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Neighbourhood Policing Team, in which I can see that he attempted to answer your questions and allay your concerns regarding the reasons for the police welfare visit to your home address. I have also reviewed the MPS incident logs. PC Czinege clarified the reasons for the police welfare check following your contact with the police, and confirmed the visit was not in response to a warrant under the Mental Health Act.
The information provided to you by PC Czinege was re-iterated in the outcome letter from the CH, who confirmed that the police visits to your home address were in relation to a genuine policing purpose. In my opinion, having reviewed all the available information, I do not consider these police visits to be highly unusual, as you asserted. I am satisfied that the CH provided adequate information about the reasons for the police visits to your home address and provided a reasonable response to your complaint. The information I have reviewed, including the incident logs, does not support your assertion that the reasons for the police visits were linked to any previous complaints that you made to police. I can see from the outcome letter that when officers attended your home on 3 March 2023 and 15 April 2023, they knocked on your door however you did not answer. In my opinion, the evidence does not indicate that the actions taken by officers from the MPS, as discussed within the outcome letter, constitutes a criminal offence as you asserted.
Your application for a review highlighted your dissatisfaction at the explanation provided regarding disclosure of information under GDPR. I am satisfied that the information provided within the outcome letter is reasonable and proportionate, however I would re- iterate the CH’s advice and suggest that should you believe that you may be entitled to any additional information, that you request this through the appropriate MPS channels.
The CH’s outcome letter further provided information to you regarding the outcome of a complaint you made highlighting your dissatisfaction with Commander Jerome and his involvement/evidence to the Independent Enquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). I can see from IOPC records that you submitted an appeal against the MPS’s decision letter dated 11 April 2019 to not record your complaint. Your appeal was received by the IOPC on 30 April 2019 and was considered under IOPC reference number 2019/118839. You were informed in our decision letter dated 23 May 2019 that your appeal was not upheld, and the matters you raised should not have been recorded as a complaint.
Our records indicate that you contacted the decision maker, Assessment Analyst Hannah Tyler on 28 May 2019 noting your dissatisfaction with the outcome to your appeal, and she replied to your email on 29 May 2019 reminding you that our decision is final and cannot be changed. This suggests that you were informed of the IOPC’s decision to not uphold your appeal at that time. Should you wish to receive a copy of this decision letter, please inform me of the same and I will forward a copy to you via email.
I am satisfied that the CH’s findings are supported by the available evidence, and the CH has undertaken adequate lines of enquiry to address your complaint reasonably and proportionately, given the explanations provided and the action taken to rectify your complaint. I have not identified any additional lines of enquiry that could be undertaken, which could make a material difference to the CH’s findings and as such, could have a significant effect on the outcome of your complaint. Your review is therefore not upheld.
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Conclusion
I am sympathetic to your description of the distress and trauma you have experienced, and
I understand that this outcome may be disappointing to you, should you feel that you have
not received a satisfactory remedy to the issues you raised. However, I have considered
all the available evidence and for the reasons provided above, I have concluded that the
outcome of the enquiries into your complaint was reasonable and proportionate, and the
finding that the service you received was acceptable to be logical. No further action is
required in respect of these matters.
Organisational learning
Throughout my assessment, I have carefully considered whether there are any further opportunities for organisational learning or improvement. In this case, I have not identified any additional learning.
Matters we cannot consider
I would like to re-iterate that the purpose of my review is to determine whether your complaint has been handled reasonably and proportionately by the MPS, and that appropriate conclusions have been reached regarding the service you have received.
Your application for review asserted that complaints to the IOPC regarding your brother’s treatment were never responded to. If you made a complaint about the behaviour of police officers, and received an acknowledgement letter or email confirming receipt of your complaint, please provide an IOPC and/or MPS reference number to enquiries@policeconduct.gov.uk to request further information, if we hold it within IOPC records, about how your complaint was handled.
In your email to the IOPC sent on 11 December 2023, you provided a letter from the MPS dated 30 March 2020, which confirmed that the complaint made by Mr Edward Moss, MPS reference IX/02108/20, had been recorded. Since this letter came from the MPS Complaints Support Team, please contact the MPS directly for further information about how the complaint was handled.
This letter was addressed to Mr Moss, therefore should you wish to make a request for information to the IOPC, you can find more information about how to do so on our website: Requesting information | Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
This concludes my review and I hope my decision and the reasons I have given are clear. You cannot appeal the outcome of this review.
You can contact me if you have any comments or feedback, or if you need more information about the way I have reviewed the force’s handling of your complaint. My contact details are at the end of this letter.
We are committed to providing the highest possible standard of customer service. Please let us know if you are unhappy with the service you have received.
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Yours sincerely
Vanessa
Casework Manager
Independent Office for Police Conduct Telephone: 020 7166 3964
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