Complaint Handling Reviews

The Complaints

The complaints in this case arose after the applicant assisted a police officer to restrain a prisoner within the custody suite of a police station.  We have reviewed the handling of 7 complaints, namely that:

1. an officer entered a cell without carrying out sufficient risk assessment, contrary to the relevant SOP;
2. the same officer entered a cell to retrieve a blanket while the prisoner was still within the cell, contrary to the relevant SOP;
3. the same officer provided incorrect information in his operational statement regarding a previous complaint made by the applicant;
4. a second officer provided incorrect information in his operational statement regarding a previous complaint made by the applicant;
5. the same officer failed to check on the applicant’s welfare following the same incident;
6. Police Scotland deliberately deleted custody CCTV footage in respect of the same incident; and
7. a Police Custody and Security Officer (PCSO) provided a contradictory version of events in subsequent statements he provided about complaints made by the applicant. 

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, 4, 5 and 7 of the applicant’s complaints to a reasonable standard  but not so complaint 6.

We have made one recommendation to address the shortcomings in Police Scotland’s handling of the complaints.

Specifically, we have recommended that Police Scotland re-assess the information available and provide the applicant with a further response.

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

Outcome

Police Scotland implemented the recommendation by carrying out necessary and proportionate further enquiries and re-assessing the complaint. While the complaint remained not upheld Police Scotland provided the applicant with a further detailed response to the complaint including a detailed explanation for this determination. In their original letter of response Police Scotland had identified individual learning for an officer involved, however following re-assessment of the complaint it was accepted that this should be organisational learning as it involved a change of process by all custody staff. 

Police Bodies : Police Scotland