Report– Police Scotland – PIRC/00055/22
The Complaints
The complaints in this case arose as a result of officers’ attending the address of the applicant’s friend (Mr A) in connection with an argument that had broken out between them. We have reviewed the handling of three complaints, namely that:
- Officers used excessive force when handcuffing the applicant
- The applicant was in a police vehicle for a prolonged period of time and it took officers too long to drive him to his home address; and
- an officer was uncivil to the applicant and said “you are lucky you are getting home tonight you could have been done with Breach of the Peace and COVID Act”.
Police Scotland’s Decision
Police Scotland did not uphold any of the applicant’s complaints.
Our Findings
We have found that Police Scotland handled complaints 2 and 3 to a reasonable standard, but not so complaint 1.
We have made one recommendation and identified one learning point to address the shortcomings in Police Scotland’s handling of the complaints.
Specifically, we recommend that Police Scotland should reassess the information available, in particular the Use of Force form and the healthcare practitioner’s statement. Police Scotland should provide the applicant with a fresh response thereafter, which details the outcome of this assessment, addresses the observations made in our report and explains why the complaint has been upheld or not upheld. The fresh response should consider the information available about the applicant’s injuries and explain how this information was assessed and evaluated or taken into account when determining if the force used by the officers was excessive.
We have also reminded Police Scotland of the necessity to use the appropriate officer rank when responding to future complaints.
Our recommendation and learning point should be implemented by Police Scotland within two months of the date of this report.
Police Bodies : Police Scotland