Your feedback matters
Being stopped and searched can be an unpleasant experience, no matter the approach of the police officers involved. But if it’s felt that there has been unnecessary force or an inappropriate attitude, then we'd like to hear about it and, where necessary, act upon it. Likewise, we welcome any suggestions or positive comments you’d like to share.
Tell us about your experience of being stopped by the police
If you feel you’ve had an unpleasant or unsatisfactory experience, you may wish to make a formal complaint. You can do so if you think a police officer has behaved incorrectly or unfairly. For example, if you think an officer has:
- been rude to you
- used excessive force
- abused your rights
- arrested you unlawfully
All complaints are investigated and this can take time.
We treat every complaint as a community trigger. This means all complaints we get are reviewed by our Community Cohesion Group and discussed with independent advisory groups and community forums to allow public scrutiny and feedback. This lets us identify action we need to take.
Alternatives to a formal complaint
To raise an issue about something that has caused you concern, or was done well, it may be worth giving feedback. This might be particularly useful if you've witnessed something where, because you were not directly affected, you feel reluctant to make a formal contact, but you still feel unhappy, or pleased, about the way you've seen police officers behave.
There are options available for giving feedback:
- make a suggestion using our online contact form
- call 101 and talk to us
- go to any police station
You can also write to:
Chief Constable
Cheshire Police Headquarters
Clemonds Hey
Winsford
Cheshire
CW7 2UA
How to get involved
Ride Along scheme
We are no longer accepting applications for the stop and search Ride Along Scheme. The purpose of the scheme was to allow members of the public to see stop and search encounters conducted by the police so they can improve their understanding of the process and see a stop and search encounters first-hand but when participating in the ride along we could not guarantee that a stop search encounter would occur.
Police Officers are now required to use Body Worn Video to record interactions with the public where they are using their police powers and this includes stop and search encounters.
Members of the public can now attend their local police station and review stop and search encounters recorded by the police at Community Cohesion Group meetings.
If you are interested in learning more about the police use of stop and search and would like to participate please get in touch using the details below.
Scrutiny panels
Scrutiny panels take place throughout the year in various formats. These are when members of the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) or members of the public meet police representatives and scrutinise the use of stop and search in Cheshire.
In addition to the IAG, each Local Policing Unit (LPU) has a Community Cohesion Group (CCG) where the local public meet with the local police to scrutinise how the police use their powers such as Stop and Search.
Please email us to ask about the results of these scrutiny panels.
We also have a quarterly Police Accountability Meeting which is independently chaired. This meeting takes account of the public’s view of how we use powers, delivers training to officers and reviews force policy regarding stop and search (and other powers). The data shared in these meetings is available on our stop and search page.
To get involved in your local Community Cohesion Group, the Police Accountability meeting or the Independent Advisory Group please email us.
In addition to this, in March 2024 we launched a monthly scrutiny panel that is made up of representatives from the University of Chester, Child Action Northwest and the IAG. This group will focus on ensuring the use of stop search powers in Cheshire continues to be fair, transparent and appropriate.