Report - Police Scotland - PIRC/00030/21
The Complaints
The complaints in this case arose when the applicant reported to Police Scotland the alleged assault of a prisoner by an on-duty prison officer, and subsequent threatening behaviour by the same prison officer towards the applicant.
We have reviewed the handling of three complaints, namely that:
Police Scotland failed to obtain a statement from the applicant in relation to an assault that he witnessed and reported;
Police Scotland failed to obtain a statement from the applicant in relation to his report that a prison officer threatened him “to not get involved”; and
Police Scotland did not adequately review the Scottish Prison Service ‘use of force’ guidelines in relation to the applicant’s report of assault.
Police Scotland’s Decision
Police Scotland upheld complaint 2 but did not uphold complaints 1 and 3.
Our Findings
We have found that Police Scotland handled complaints 2 and 3 to a reasonable standard but not so complaint 1.
Consequently, we have made a recommendation to address the shortcomings in Police Scotland’s handling of complaint 1. In summary, we have recommended that Police Scotland provides the applicant with a further response to this complaint.
Our recommendation should be completed by Police Scotland within two months of the date of this report.
Police Bodies : Police Scotland