PCCS calls for guidance on complaints records

National guidance on the way complaints about police in Scotland are recorded must be drawn up, the Police Complaints Commission for Scotland (PCCS) has said.

John McNeil, the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland, has written to the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS), Pat Shearer, raising the concern that the current method of recording and presenting allegations fails to show the number of individual complainants that have come forward.

Mr McNeil wants ACPOS to spearhead a change in the way complaints are recorded so that they are more indicative of satisfaction levels.

This follows a recent review by the Commissioner where a member of the public challenged the way that police had recorded a complaint made by different individuals.

In 2006, ACPOS published a report that looked at standardising heads of complaint but to date there is no formal, national guidance on the appropriate methods for recording police complaints.