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Report – Police Scotland – PIRC/00026/25

05 Aug 2025
Content

The Complaints

The complaint in this case arose after the applicant made reports about a serving police officer to Police Scotland spreading information about her son’s conviction. The applicant contacted 101 to report her concerns and was directed to make a complaint about the police. We have reviewed the handling of three complaints, namely that: 

  1. On 2 August 2024, the applicant is dissatisfied that the Professional Standards Department (PSD) Gateway told her they could not establish a link between the social media posts and a police officer, when she was able to identify the link. 

  2. Police Scotland did not share the information with local policing after assessing that it needed to be shared; and

  3. The applicant sent details about unprofessional behaviour by an off-duty police officer but Police Scotland did not acknowledge this, and therefore she did not know if this information had been considered by PSD Gateway.

Police Scotland's Decision

Police Scotland upheld complaints 2 and 3 but did not uphold complaint 1. 

Our Findings

We have found that Police Scotland handled complaints 2 and 3 to a reasonable standard but not so complaint 1. 

We have identified two learning points relative to Police Scotland’s administration of the complaints.

Our learning points should be implemented by Police Scotland within two months of the date of this report. 

Police Bodies: Police Scotland

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