Posted: Wednesday 28 April 2010
Commissioner calls for “unreserved apology” from Tayside Police
Tayside Police have been asked to apologise "unreservedly" to a member of the public for comments made by one of its civilian members of staff involved in the investigation of an alleged wildlife crime by two former workers on a country estate in Tayside.
The Deputy Chief Constable had previously made an apology to the estate owner in terms that the Commissioner did not accept as acknowledging that there was sufficient evidence from witnesses to confirm that derogatory language had been used when referring to him.
In the same report published this week, the Commissioner found that Tayside had handled further complaints around the same incident reasonably, and noted as a learning point that forces should provide complainers with regular updates during an investigation and explain the reasons for any delay in their final letter.
"When a learning point like this is identified in one force, I want to get to a situation where all forces, and their police boards and authorities look to see if they could take that learning on board too. That's how we will drive up standards in police complaints handling."
John McNeill, Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland