Posted: Monday 1 February 2010
Police Complaints Commissioner has the last word
Anyone who makes a complaint about the police in Scotland will now automatically be given contact details for the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland, when the police investigation is completed.
The inclusion of this information in the force's final letter to complainers was accepted by the Professional Standards, Heads of Department in January and will be formally introduced by all eight police forces in Scotland from this month, although some forces have already adopted the practice. Prior to this, police forces did not have to tell the public about the PCCS in their final response to a complaint.
The move, driven by the Commissioner, John McNeill, is one of a number of recommendations to come out of a PCCS report into the accessibility of the police complaints process, published at the end of last year. It is designed to increase awareness of the role of the Commissioner and clarify the stage at which the PCCS can become involved in the complaints process.
This is a really positive step and one that I have been pushing for, for some time. By signposting contact information, the police are not only upholding best practice in complaints handling, they are also making an important statement to the public about how seriously they take complaints.
For the public this move provides them with the assurance that there is someone they can come to, who can look at the facts independently and make a decision without fear or favour.
A copy of the full report "Assessment of the Accessibility of Police Complaints Handling" is available for download as a pdf from the PCCS website