Posted: Friday 18 March 2011
Commissioner reviews 500th complaint this year
The fourteen reports finalised this month demonstrate that all policing bodies operating in Scotland are held to account and subject to the same degree oversight and scrutiny by an independent police complaints commissioner, whether they are the Ministry of Defence Police, British Transport Police or any of the eight police forces
The number of individual heads of complaint reviewed by the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland this year passed the 500 mark in March, with the finalisation of fourteen complaint handling reviews involving six Scottish forces, British Transport Police and the Ministry of Defence Police.
In the first ever complaint from a serving British Army soldier reviewed by the PCCS, the Commissioner found that while the Ministry of Defence Police's own investigation had been wide-ranging and thorough, the final response did not provide clear analysis and reasoning behind a number of the conclusions reached.
In total twelve complaints were received, of which only four were found to have been handled reasonably by the MoD Police. The complaints were made by a soldier after a search of his home, following receipt of intelligence that he was in unauthorised possession of a "Commons Weapons Sight" belonging to the MoD. No stolen MoD property was found during the search.
In another report, Northern Constabulary is criticised by Professor John McNeill following his review of five complaints relating to their arrest and subsequent treatment of a 67 year old woman.
The Commissioner found that the officer's decision to arrest the woman, who was the alleged victim of a serious assault by her son, was technically lawful however, he did not share their view that they had "no alternative" but to arrest the woman. In finding that the complaint of unlawful arrest was not handled reasonably by Northern Constabulary, the Commissioner has asked the force to provide a response to the woman explaining why it believed it had no alternative but to arrest her. He found that a further complaint of incivility was not handled reasonably. Two further complaints from the same woman about the legality of a second arrest and the use of excessive force were found to have been handled reasonably.
In other reports published this week, the Commissioner found that response letters from Strathclyde Police and Fife Constabulary did not provide sufficient information to inform the person making the complaint as to how key conclusions were reached. In this vein, Professor McNeill encouraged other police bodies in Scotland to follow British Transport Police's practice of providing the person making the complaint with a copy of the investigation officer's report detailing the findings of the complaint enquiry.