Police chiefs in Norfolk have vowed to try and identify the reasons why complaints against officers in the county have risen.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) published its annual complaints statistics for all 43 police forces and this saw Norfolk Police record 550 complaints against officers, a rise of 6pc, compared with 518 in the previous year.

The total number of allegations contained within the Norfolk Constabulary complaints was 636, up from 622 the previous year.

The rise in complaints against Norfolk officers comes as figures reveal complaints against officers in Suffolk fell by 20pc (562, down from 867 the previous year) while nationally they fell 4pc with 33,099 complaint cases recorded.

Simon Bailey, deputy chief constable of Norfolk police, said: 'There's been an increase of 32 complaints against officers in the period which has been reported. It's obviously something which we will now look at to see if we can identify the reasons why and if there are clear underlying reasons we will seek to address them.

'But it is a small increase and needs to be placed in the context of excellent ongoing performance which is seeing reductions in crime, improvement in levels of satisfaction and improved detection rates.'

In 2010/11, Norfolk Police finalised 472 complaint cases in an average of 94 working days, compared to a national average of 107 working days.

The IPCC upheld 10 of 16 appeals (63pc) in 2010/11 from members of the public against Norfolk Police for not initially recording their complaint – effectively instructing the force to look again at those complaints. This compares to 58pc of non-recording appeals being upheld nationally.

Suffolk finalised 413 complaint cases in an average of 101 working days against the national average.