More than 16,000 complaints were made about the police in the North over the last five years, according to new figures.
But less than 3 per cent of those claims against officers submitted to Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson's office were upheld.
Figures contained in the independent watchdog's Equality Monitoring Report also indicate young men are most likely to make a complaint.
The report, which covers the period April 2006 to March 2011, shows that almost 50 per cent of the complaints it received were from men aged under 45.
A Police Ombudsman spokeswoman said men aged under 24 are the group most likely to complain.
"There is some research evidence to suggest that young men may be more likely to come in contact with the police and because of the nature of the contact are more likely to either experience or allege inappropriate police behaviour," she said.
The analysis of the backgrounds of people who complain to the office, which is required under equality legislation, suggested that the greatest number of complainants - 48 per cent - said they did not support any political party.
"Traditional Northern Ireland politics does not seem to be a factor when people make complaints about the police," said the spokeswoman.
"There were no real differences in the types of allegations made against the police according to the broad category of political opinion stated by respondents in terms of either support for Unionism or Nationalism." Among the other trends the report indicated were that 70 per cent of the people who complained about police were men and 30% were women.
Of people who complained, 26 per cent said they had a disability, and 11 per cent were not born in Northern Ireland.
PA