22 February 2021 | Complaint Reviews
Report - Police Scotland PIRC/00099/20
Our role is to review the way in which policing bodies handle complaints made about them. It is not to investigate the circumstances which led to the complaint or uphold allegations made. When carrying out a Complaint Handling Review (CHR) we consider a number of factors, including whether police carried out sufficient enquiries; their response was supported by the material information available and whether the police response was adequately reasoned.
See an ‘Executive Summary’ of the relevant CHR below. To comply with UK Government accessibility regulations we no longer publish documents in PDF form, so it’s currently not feasible for us to publish a full copy of the report.
The Complaint
The complaint in this case arose after the applicant was arrested in connection with a domestic incident.
We have reviewed the handling of a single complaint, namely that on the night of the applicant’s arrest, he tried to raise a counter allegation on at least four occasions, however this was not dealt with.
Police Scotland’s Decision
Police Scotland did not uphold the applicant’s complaint.
Our Findings
We have found that Police Scotland did not handle the complaint to a reasonable standard.
Consequently, we have made a single recommendation to address the shortcoming identified in Police Scotland’s handling of the complaint. In summary, we recommend that Police Scotland obtain accounts from the relevant officers and issue the applicant with a further response, which communicates the correct outcome of the complaint enquiry.
Our recommendation should be implemented by Police Scotland within two months of the date of this report.
Police Bodies : Police Scotland