Complaint Handling Reviews

The complaints

The complaints in this case arose as a result of the applicant’s contact with Police Scotland in relation to incidents he reported, and previous complaints about the police he submitted, from July 2020 onwards. We have reviewed the handling of six complaints, namely that:

1. Police Scotland has repeatedly demonstrated ableist bias and discrimination against the applicant as an autistic person, when dealing with incidents reported to the police by him or his neighbours, and by ignoring his subsequent allegation of bias and discrimination;
2. A police officer falsely accused the applicant of alleging that she was racist, which caused him distress and prevented him from having further verbal communication with her;
3. A police officer falsely accused the applicant of using racist language, which caused him distress and prevented him from having further verbal communication with her;
4. A police officer offensively described the applicant’s autism as ‘replication’ as if it was a virus;
5. A police officer falsely claimed that Asperger’s Syndrome is not a form of autism; and
6. Police Scotland took a significant length of time to deal with the applicant’s complaints after he highlighted that he was unhappy with the original informal resolution. 

Police Scotland’s decision

Police Scotland did not uphold complaints 1 to 5. Further, Police Scotland did not provide the applicant with a determination on complaint 6.

Our findings

We have found that Police Scotland handled complaints 1, 2, 3 and 5 to a reasonable standard but not so complaints 4 and 6.

Consequently, we have made two recommendations to address the shortcomings in Police Scotland’s handling of complaints 4 and 6. In summary, we have recommended that Police Scotland considers the available information and provides the applicant with a further response to complaint 4 and provides the applicant with a response to complaint 6.

We have also recommended that Police Scotland records complaints 2, 3, 4 and 5 as separate complaints.

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

Outcome

Police Scotland implemented our recommendations in this case. In doing so, they recorded two complaints separately, and issued the applicant with further responses on another two complaints to address the shortcomings we had identified in the handling of the complaints.

Both complaints were upheld in the further responses, and Police Scotland identified learning for the relevant officer in relation to one of these complaints, which was disseminated appropriately.

Police Bodies : Police Scotland