Complaints made by the public against Wiltshire police are rising.

And now chief constable Elizabeth Neville is warning that the figures are likely to exceed the force's targets.

In a report to a meeting of the complaints committee on Monday she says the force is working hard to keep within a target figure of no more than 220 complaints per 1,000 officers.

The national average is 257 and Miss Neville is telling Wiltshire police authority she is confident the county will improve on that.

Complaints against the police have risen steadily over the last few years, from 189 in 1997, to 226 in 1998 and 278 in 1999.

Miss Neville says in the six months from April this year the number of complaints was 130 nine more than in the same period of 1999.

A breakdown of the complainants this year shows 70 were from white people, six from black and one from an Asian.

The chief constable says that the number of allegations concerning 'detention, oppressive conduct and incivility' has fallen by 13. She says: "This is particularly encouraging because it is an area we have concentrated on, seeking improvement."

The report states that complaints from members of the public that police officers have not done something properly and thus neglected their duty are up from four in September 1999 to ten in the same month this year.

Miss Neville explains: "None of these cases is connected and no particular pattern is displayed.

"As with allegations of assaults, each of these cases is now being investigated."

The authority will be told there have been more allegations of assaults by police officers up from 13 to 22 and that most of those arise during arrests.

The chief officer's report says: "In more than 50 per cent of cases the person being arrested is under the influence of drink or drugs.

"As members will know arresting someone often leads to confrontation. This sometimes results in the arrested person feeling that excessive force has been used."

She says several complaints relate to handcuffs allegedly being put on too tightly but often the arrested person ignores warnings that the more they struggle in the cuffs the tighter they get.

Members will be told too that regular and special constabulary officers are regularly given training in the use of handcuffs, batons and CS sprays, and have to re-qualify annually.