Complaint Handling Reviews

The Complaints

The complaints in this case arose after the applicant was issued with a Recorded Police Warning.  We have reviewed the handling of five complaints, namely that:

1. an officer was not impartial and had a conflict of interest;
2. the same officer issued the applicant with a Recorded Police Warning (RPW), but did not explain the full implications of the RPW or the alternatives;
3. the same officer A was heavy handed in his approach, which resulted in the applicant accepting the RPW;
   the same officer informed the applicant that he would ask for details of the incident to be excluded from a police report to the community council, however the report included details of the incident and was sent within the appeal period he had to challenge the RPW; and
4. after being told that it was not in the public interest to pursue the case, the officer issued the applicant with a RPW. 

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

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

Police Bodies : Police Scotland