Informal resolution of complaints against the police: a quasi-experimental test of restorative justice

This article reviews the international literature on the design of police complaints systems, noting the growing acceptance by expert commentators of the need for a mixture of remedial and punitive elements. It then presents original data comparing the traditional police complaints process as operated by Hampshire Police with a restorative form of that process as pioneered by Thames Valley Police. While noting that a minority of cases in Thames Valley were marred by poor facilitation, and that it will not be easy to replicate the generally positive results nonetheless achieved by that police service, it concludes by advocating further experimentation with, and use of, restorative justice in this sphere.