Posted: Monday 21 November 2011
Commissioner awards Fife Constabulary highest possible rating following audit
Fife Constabulary has been handed a clean bill of health for its initial complaint recording practices following an audit by the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland.
Correspondence, e mails and incident logs from Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline police offices, Headquarters Crime Management and the Force Contact Centre were examined as part of the audit.
From over 500 records examined, only three were found to be complaints that had not been identified by the force. This represents a non-recording level of less than 1% (0.6%).
The first of the non-recorded complaints involved the police response to anti social behaviour, the second concerned a number of allegations about the attitude of traffic wardens and the third was an email from a member of the public to the crime management department that contained an expression of dissatisfaction about the actions of a police officer involved in investigating potential criminal allegations he had made.
On publication of the report this week, Fife Constabulary accepted the Commissioner's recommendation that these cases are recorded as complaints about the police.
Professor John McNeill said "The audit identified that Fife Constabulary have proper arrangements in place to ensure that they capture and record complaints received from the public. Although three instances of non-recording were found, I also identified areas of good practice. This included the clear, written guidance on how to handle complaints received by telephone and email. As a result, I was content to award Fife the highest rating of "Full Assurance ."
The Deputy Chief Constable, Andrew Barker, welcomed the outcome of the audit saying: "The audit findings show that the communities of Fife can be confident that when they require to complain about the service they received or the actions of officers or staff, their complaints are being appropriately recorded."
The Scottish Government, Office of the Chief Statistician (OCS) advised on the methodology and sampling used in the audit which was the first to be carried by the PCCS. Over the next six months complaints recording audits will be carried out in all eight police forces operating in Scotland.
Follow this link to read the full report