Posted: Tuesday 23 March 2010
Fife Constabulary take complaints to PCCS
Fife Constabulary has been commended by John McNeill, the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland (PCCS) for the way it responded to "repetitive" complaints and for its decision to refer the case to his office, when its efforts to resolve the matter were unsuccessful.
The unusual step of referring the complaints to PCCS came to light when the Commissioner published his latest set of Complaint Handling Reviews. The case involved a long running dispute between a member of the public and Fife Constabulary over the frequency and duration of tea breaks by Traffic Wardens in the area.
In complaints stretching back to 2007, the member of the public had been in frequent correspondence with the police about what he considered lengthy and unauthorised tea breaks by local traffic wardens. He also complained that two Chief Superintendents were complicit in allowing these working practices.
In support of his case, he made regular observations of traffic wardens' activities and examined copies of their contracts of employment under Freedom of Information legislation. Fife Constabulary, who are responsible for the day to day management of Traffic Wardens in the area, investigated and responded to the complaints over a period two years, and found nothing to support the applicant's allegations.
In his decision published this week, John McNeill, the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland found that despite the continuous and repetitive nature of his complaints, Fife Constabulary dealt with the applicant in a fair, reasonable and courteous manner and had provided detailed and satisfactory responses.
Given the scale and diversity of policing activity, it is not feasible for police forces to reflect the personal priorities of one member of the public. I believe that the police should have referred the case to me even earlier in the dispute, but I acknowledge that they wanted to make every effort to resolve the complaints themselves and only turned to me as a last resort.
John McNeill, Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland