Complaint Handling Reviews

The Complaints

 The complaints in this case arose following the applicant being charged with an offence, which resulted in the suspension of his employment. We have reviewed the handling of six complaints, namely that:

1. On 7 December 2020, a police officer made inappropriate comments about members of the applicant’s profession, causing him to feel uncomfortable; 
2. In a telephone call regarding the police enquiry into the applicant, which took place between a police officer and a representative from the applicant’s professional regulatory body, an officer did inappropriately ask whether suspension would prevent the applicant from working with children completely, when the enquiry had discovered no evidence; 
3. The police failed to notify the applicant, between 17 December 2020 and 18 March 2021, that there would be no proceedings, despite it having been mentioned in a child protection case discussion on 17 December 2020 that the police would not be taking the case forward; 
4. Having carried out an enquiry into the applicant, and with the outcome of the enquiry known on 17 December 2020, the police did unreasonably carry forward action from the child protection case discussions to “explore if there are any further measures that can be taken with regard to [the applicant] and his future contact with children”; 
5. On 5 December 2020, in a telephone call between a social work representative and a police officer, the officer did incorrectly infer that the child who made disclosures on two occasions was not prompted; and 
6. Police Scotland used recordings of both parent’s interviews of the subject child as evidence and failed to take account of inconsistencies and confirmation bias in that evidence. 
    

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 1, 2 and 3 to a reasonable standard but not so complaints 4, 5 and 6.

Consequently, we have made three recommendations to address the shortcomings in Police Scotland’s handling of complaints 4, 5, and 6. In summary, we have recommended that Police Scotland undertakes further necessary proportionate enquiries and provides the applicant with a further response to these complaints.

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

Outcome

Police Scotland implemented the recommendation in this case. In doing so, Police Scotland conducted further enquiries by obtaining an additional accounts from both the subject officer involved and specialist officers. Police Scotland also provided a further response which was well-reasoned and clearly explained the relevant legislative provisions. While two of the complaints remained not upheld, complaint 6 is now upheld, in respect of which learning was identified for the subject officer.

Police Bodies : Police Scotland