Fewer complaints against police

Posted by: Robert Cotton | Last Updated: 11.10.2011

The number of complaints against Scotland's police forces has dropped to a three year low, according to an independent review.

Professor John McNeill, the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland (PCCS), said in the year to March 31, allegations about police fell by 8.8% to 7,009.

However, despite the overall decrease two forces had more complaints: Northern Constabulary saw an increase of 9% and Fife Constabulary complaints were up 3.8% on the previous year.

Central Scotland Police recorded the largest fall in complaints, down by almost a quarter (22.9%), while Strathclyde, the country's largest force, saw a decrease of 11.9%. Tayside Police saw a 10.7% drop, Lothian and Borders were down 9%, Grampian 8.5% and Dumfries and Galloway were down 6%.

The PCCS report, published on Tuesday, is an annual digest of complaints using information provided by police forces. It records the types of complaints received: criminal, non-criminal and quality of service; and those disposed of by the force and area procurators fiscal.

The report breaks up the figures into 12 categories of complaint, ranging from traffic irregularity to corrupt practice. Forces covering different population sizes are compared using the number of complaints per 10,000 of the population.

Using this denominator, Strathclyde recorded the lowest amount of complaints last year (11.2 per 10,000 people) and Grampian had the highest (18.9 per 10,000). The average for Scotland was 13.4 per 10,000.

Irregular procedure, which relates to allegations made about officers performing their duty in a manner "not in accordance" with force policy or standard operating procedures, was the most common complaint - a third (32.5%) of all complaints fell into this category. Rudeness by officers was the second most common complaint, accounting for 15.5% of all complaints made by members of the public.

Complaints about senior police officers - anyone ranked above chief superintendent - rose from 45 last year to 48 this year. Strathclyde Police recorded the greatest increase in complaints about its senior officers, rising from 18 to 28.

Professor McNeill said the overall drop in complaints was encouraging, but added:

"Where the police and I may part company is that I do not see the closing of a complaint by the police as the end of the story. I have seen a significant increase in the number of people coming to me after they have been through the police's complaints procedure because they are not happy with the way the police have handled their complaint."

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