Police watchdog calls for national complaints guide

A POLICE watchdog has called for national guidelines to be drawn up on how complaints about different forces are recorded.

John McNeill, the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland, is concerned that the way forces currently record and present such allegations does not help identify the number of individual complainants.

He believes levels of public satisfaction may therefore not be truly reflected.

Mr McNeill has written to Pat Shearer, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos), and is calling on the group to develop comprehensive national guidance on the issue.

Yesterday he said: "It's all about consistency. The public needs to be confident that, no matter where they make a complaint, it will be recorded and reported in a consistent way across all of Scotland's police forces.

"I am looking to Acpos to take the lead in actively developing national guidance."

Scotland's Police Complaints Commissioner provides independent scrutiny of the way the police handle non-criminal complaints from the public.