THE number of complaints made against West Mercia Police have risen by 44 per cent in the last year – the joint second highest in the country.

Data from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) shows a total of 34,103 complaint cases were made against police across the country in 2016/17.

West Mercia Police, which covers Bromsgrove and Redditch, saw complaints rise by 44 per cent, from 509 in 2015/16 to 733 last year - the joint second-highest in the country.

Only Warwickshire police saw a greater upsurge in complaints (60 per cent).

Superintendent Helena Bennett, head of professional standards for Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police, said of the stats, which were gathered by locksmithservice.co.uk: "There has been an increase in recorded complaints made against Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police, however, this is due to a change in our recording procedures along with our proactive efforts to make sure that people are able to make complaints more easily.

"The IPCC report highlights that increases can reflect positive measures to improve complainants’ access to the complaint system or better recording processes and this is the case with our forces.

"The figures produced by the IPCC in this report are helpful to us in making improvements.

“It is inevitable however that with the nature of policing as it is and the number of people with whom we have contact each day, there will be occasions when members of the public will have concerns resulting from that contact.

"It is vital that on the occasions where we do fall short of delivering the correct level of service, we acknowledge that as soon as possible, and do everything we can to put that right.

“We remain committed to protecting our communities from harm and are satisfied that the vast majority of our workforce do an extremely professional job on a daily basis, often in challenging circumstances.”

West Midlands Police, which covers parts of Rubery and Rednal, saw a 24 per cent reduction in complaints – the third biggest in the country – from 1,168 in 2015/16 to 882 in 2016/17.