towards them, if they were "adversely affected" by said behaviour or if they were an eyewitness to said behaviour. A person is "adversely affected" if they suffer any form of loss or damage, distress or inconvenience, if they are put in danger or are otherwise unduly put at risk of being adversely affected. PSD work alongside the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), to whom they will refer the most serious allegations. Where appropriate, PSD have a range of outcomes following disciplinary panels, including no action, counselling (management advice), written warning, transfer to another post, withholding increments and dismissal. West Midlands Police recorded 501 complaints for 2018/19, a 36 percent drop in comparison to 2017/18 during which 777 complaints were recorded. Press Office Also known as Corporate Communications, the West Midlands Police Press Office is centralised at headquarters and is charged with representing the force's public image. Each LPU has dedicated Territorial Communications officers and in addition to addressing media enquiries, the Press Office also looks after the force's website and publishes the force's internal online newspaper, News Beat. Social media West Midlands Police maintains a presence on social media websites including Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and blogging platforms. Several of the force's social media accounts have won recognition as examples of best practice, including Solihull Police's Twitter feed which came first place in the 2012 Golden Twits' Customer Service category and Inspector Brown's Mark Hanson Digital Media Award 2012 for his mental health blog. Special constabulary Officers belonging to the special constabulary have the same powers as full-time officers and are unpaid volunteers, giving a minimum of sixteen hours a month of duty time. Initial training for special constables lasts 22 weeks, and when deployed they wear the same street uniform as other officers. They can be identified as Specials by their collar numbers, which start with 7 and the 'SC' on their epaulettes. Special constables provide West Midlands Police with around 96,000 hours of voluntary duty each year and usually work alongside regular officers on neighbourhood teams, response teams and also Community Action & Priority Teams. PEEL inspection Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) conducts a periodic police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (PEEL) inspection of each police service's performance. In its latest PEEL inspection, West Midlands Police was rated as follows: Recruitment and training Applicants to join West Midlands Police as police officers