The discussion centers on the position and experiences of police complainants and on the extent to which complainants are satisfied with the quality of service provided during and the independence of complaint investigations. The analysis had two main stages, unstructured interviews with several complainants and a postal survey of complainants in April 1997. In total, 30 complainants for interviews and 200 complainants for the survey were conducted. Research findings suggested a substantial proportion of complainants remained dissatisfied with key aspects of the police complaints process, including the length of time taken to resolve a complaint, the extent to which they were kept informed about their case, and the perceived independence of complaint investigations. Such findings seemed to parallel those of other studies (Brown in 1998 and Maguire and Corbett in 1991). Also, in 1998, the Home Affairs Committee highlighted shortcomings in police complaint handling procedures. 56 references