Police complaints at three-year low but public still riled by rude officers

The number of complaints against Scotland’s police forces has dropped to a three-year low, according to an independent review.

Professor John McNeill, the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland (PCCS), said in the year to 31 March, allegations about police fell by 8.8 per cent to 7,009. However, despite the overall decrease, two forces had more complaints: Northern Constabulary with a 9 per cent rise and Fife Constabulary 3.8 per cent up on the previous year.

Central Scotland Police recorded the largest fall in complaints, down by almost a quarter (22.9 per cent), while Strathclyde, Scotland’s largest force, saw a fall of 11.9 per cent.

Tayside Police saw a 10.7 per cent drop, Lothian and Borders were down 9 per cent, Grampian 8.5 per cent and Dumfries and Galloway down 6 per cent.

The PCCS report is an annual digest of complaints using information provided by police forces. It records the types of complaints: criminal, non-criminal and quality of service; and those disposed of by the force and area procurators fiscal.

Forces covering different population sizes are compared using the number of complaints per 10,000 of the population.

Using this, Strathclyde recorded the lowest level of complaints last year (at 11.2 per 10,000 people) and Grampian had the highest (18.9 per 10,000). The average for Scotland was 13.4 per 10,000.

Complaints about senior police officers rose from 45 last year to 48. Strathclyde Police recorded the greatest increase in complaints about its senior officers, rising from 18 to 28. A senior officer is anyone ranked above chief superintendent.

No complaints were made about senior officers from the Dumfries and Galloway or Tayside forces. The number of complaints about senior officers from Grampian dropped from 14 to five last year.

Prof McNeill said the drop was encouraging. He said: “I am sure the forces will welcome the overall drop in complaints and I am encouraged by any reduction in the number of complaints. Where the police and I may part company is that I do not see the closing of a complaint by the police as the end of the story.

“I have seen a significant increase in the number of people coming to me after they have been through the complaints procedure because they are not happy with the way the police have handled their complaint.

“We need to work on better resolution locally and proportionately.

“I hope that the statutory guidance I published in March, with its focus on local resolution and forces learning from complaints received, will contribute to a further reduction in complaints to my office.”

The report breaks up the figures into 12 categories of complaint, ranging from traffic irregularity to corrupt practice.

Irregular procedure – officers failing to act in line with policy – was the most common complaint. A third (32.5 per cent) of complaints fell into this category.

Rudeness by officers was the second common complaint, accounting for 15.5 per cent of all complaints.