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. 

To make a formal complaint and for more information about how complaints are investigated, read our complaints pages. If you've had a positive experience, you can offer us feedback.

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:

How to get involved

Lay observers' scheme and scrutiny panels

With our lay observers' scheme, residents can accompany police officers on patrol to witness our use of stop and search and give us feedback. For security checks, we'll need your full name, date of birth and address.

We have quarterly scrutiny meetings on both stop and search and use of force.

  • An External Scrutiny Panel, chaired independently and with a range of diverse members, where the senior officer leads are held to account.
  • An Internal Scrutiny Meeting, chaired by the senior officer leads for stop and search and use of force, with senior attendees from across the various departments of Surrey Police.

Both meetings are minuted and the minutes or performance reports are available on request.

Please contact us if you'd like to know more about the scheme, the panels or to request the meeting minutes.