Complaint Handling Reviews

The Complaints

The complaints in this case arose following the applicant’s dispute with her neighbour who is a serving police officer. We have reviewed the handling of five complaints, namely that:

1. The police failed to respond appropriately to reports of ongoing and disruptive noise that the applicant reported was being caused by her neighbour;
2. In April 2020, the police failed to respond appropriately to the applicant’s report of work being carried out at her neighbour’s property in breach of Covid-19 guidelines;
3. The police failed to act upon reports of anti-social behaviour that were reported against the applicant’s neighbour;
4. Between May and December 2019 the applicant’s neighbour, a serving police officer, accessed a police file without genuine cause to do so; and,
5. On 4 June 2022 the applicant was unjustly arrested by the police, which was an exercise of police intimidation and harassment. 

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

Consequently, we have made a recommendation to address the shortcoming in Police Scotland’s handling of the complaint. In summary, we have recommended that Police Scotland undertakes further enquires and provides the applicant with a well-reasoned further response which fully addresses the complaint.

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

Outcome

Police Scotland implemented the recommendation made in this case. In doing so, they carried out necessary and proportionate enquiries and a further response was thereafter provided to the applicant. This further response accurately reflected the information available and provided a clear explanation as to how this information was used in assessing that the officers acted in line with recognised procedures when arresting the applicant and in applying the balance of probability test to reach the complaint determination.

Police Bodies : Police Scotland