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Complaint form

Thank you for taking the time to fill in a Police Scotland Complaint form.

We aim to contact you within 10 working days to discuss your complaint. This contact will either be by phone or by notification via e-mail or letter.

If we do not believe we can resolve your complaint by telephone you will receive notification.

If we were unable to resolve your complaint by telephone or we do not believe your complaint can be resolved by telephone, it will be forwarded to our complaint investigation team for allocation.

Complaints forwarded to our complaint investigation team are subject to a second triage. Allocation is based on severity, complexity, threat risk and harm. They are not allocated based on when you made your complaint or the time you have waited.

Due to current demand, it is likely that your complaint could take in excess of 6 months before it is allocated to an officer for investigation.

If your complaint has not been allocated within 6 months, it will be subject to review, and we may contact you to establish whether you wish to continue with your complaint.

Submisison reference number : 8a1ed266-3f3a-4132-9cf4-b0b531972726

Back to the Scottish Police website.

If you have found this page by using a search engine, please review the following questions to make sure your concern is directed to the correct place and dealt with quickly. Making sure your concern is sent to the correct point of contact will make the process faster.

This form is only for making a new complaint regarding your, or another person’s dissatisfaction about Police Scotland.

If you have already made a complaint and wish an update, please use our Complaints Update facility.

Due to current demand, if we are unable to resolve your complaint at initial contact it is likely to take in excess of 6 months before we will be able to allocate to an officer for investigation.

This form will take around 15 minutes to complete.

All fields marked with (required) are mandatory and must be filled in.

Do you wish to receive an update regarding a crime or incident you have reported?

Are you sure the matter you wish to report is a complaint? What can I complain about? Information icon

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What can I complain about?

You can complain to Police Scotland about our action or lack of action, or about the standard of service provided by us.
If you know or suspect a police officer or police staff member is doing something that does not feel right – tell us about it – or tell the Police Anti-Corruption and Abuse Reporting Service, run by Crimestoppers. Concerns relating to allegations of corruption or serious abuse can be reported to the service by calling 0800 085 00 00 or via the Crimestoppers website.
For example you can complain to us :

If you have experienced or witnessed inappropriate behaviour from an individual associated with Police Scotland, namely serving police officers, members of police staff, contractors or volunteers.
You can make a complaint about a police officer or member of police staff who, on or off duty:
- Takes money or favours in exchange for information or making things happen
- Commits a criminal act
- Uses their job for their own gain, for example, for money or advantage
- Takes advantage of their position as a member of the police service to misuse their position, authority or powers in order to pursue a sexual or improper emotional relationship with any member of the public
- Is abusive or controlling with their partner or family
- Is racist, homophobic or misogynistic, on or off duty, in person or online.
You can complain about how Police Scotland operates, for example, about the standard of police service, strategies or policing policy.

If your complaint is about a senior member of Police Scotland, for example, the Chief Constable, Deputy Chief Constable or an Assistant Chief Constable this should be directed to the SPA at Scottish Police Authority (SPA) (external link).
The SPA provides forensic services to Police Scotland and are responsible for dealing with complaints about any scientists or staff members. For any complaints about forensic services, please contact the SPA using the link above. If you are still not sure if your query is a complaint please review the following questions to make sure your concern is directed to the correct place and dealt with quickly. Making sure your concern is sent to the correct point of contact will make the process faster.

Have you checked the matter you wish to report is a relevant complaint?

Complaints about the Police are taken very seriously, so please provide as much information as you can to help us resolve this as quickly as possible. We will ask:

Details about you, including your date of birth.
Your contact details.
What your complaint is about, including times, dates and who was involved.

Please read how we will use your data to find out what we will do with the information you give us on the form.

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What we will do with your information

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Your details

Title: (required)

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Your title: (required)

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Firstname: (required)

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Surname: (required)

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Date of Birth

Date of birth: (required)

Select the date of birth / /

Do you have any communication or language needs: (required)

Are there any additional adjustments which might assist you in this process in terms of communication or language?

(required)

How can we contact you

Home address: (required)

(required)

Postcode: (required)

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Phone number:

(required)

Mobile number:

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Adding a valid email address allows us to send you a email receipt for your complaint.
Please check your spam folder if the confirmation email doesn't appear in your inbox.

Email address:

(required)

Confirm your email address:

(required)

Please complete at least one method of contact.
We will try to contact you using your preferred method of contact however we reserve the right to use other methods.
If you only wish to be contacted by post, your complaint will take considerably longer to resolve.

Preferred method of contact: (required)

(required)

About your complaint

Please select one option that most closely matches your complaint

Please select one option that most closely matches your complaint: (required)

Rudeness or inappropriate behaviour
Unprofessional conduct or uncivil behaviour
Issues with arrest
Custody issues
Discrimination
Use of force
Issues with my crime report
General quality of service
Issues with a search
Issue with property seized / productions
Other - Specify below

(required)

If other, tell us why: (required)

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What would you like to happen?

We cannot guarantee an outcome to your complaint, but it does help us to know what you might want to happen.

Please select one outcome

Please select one outcome : (required)

To return property
An explanation from the police
Your complaint will be highlighted to the local policing division to review the issue leading to the complaint.
Police learn and improve from the incident
The individual officers or staff involved to learn or improve from the incident
Individuals or the police involved to be criminally prosecuted
Individuals involved to face disciplinary procedures
An appology or acknowledgement that something went wrong
Removal of information from police systems
A review of policy/procedures
I don’t know
Something not on the list

(required)

Tell us the outcome you would like: (required)

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Complaint detail

Date of Incident

When did it happen: (required)

/ /

Time of incident

What time did it happen : (required)

Hour: Minute:

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Location of incident: (required)

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Where did it happen: (required)

Please provide the address and as much detail as you can e.g. the name of the road or landmarks nearby

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Reference number:

Are there any reference numbers to do with this complaint?
This could be a crime reference, incident number or any other Police Scotland reference number.

Evidence:

Is there anything that helps to explain what happened?
This can include photos, CCTV, text messages or documents.
Please keep these safe as we may ask for them when we investigate.

Tell us what happened: (required)

(required)

Individuals involved: (required)

If you are complaining about an officer or member of police staff please provide as much detail as you can.
If known, provide Rank, Shoulder or collar number, Name, Description or any other information.

(required)

We aim to contact you within 10 working days to discuss your complaint. This contact will either be by phone or by notification via e-mail or letter.

If we do not believe we can resolve your complaint by telephone you will receive notification.

If we were unable to resolve your complaint by telephone or we do not believe your complaint can be resolved by telephone, it will be forwarded to our complaint investigation team for allocation.

Due to current demand, it is likely that your complaint could take in excess of 6 months before it is allocated to an officer for investigation.

If your complaint has not been allocated within 6 months, it will be subject to review, and we may contact you to establish whether you wish to continue with your complaint.

Do you have any further complaints to make:

Further complaints: (required)

You have got 200 characters to tell us.

(required)

Equality and Diversity

Will you answer a few questions about yourself?

Why we are asking these questions.
Knowing these things about you helps us to make sure our services are meeting the needs of all users and all communities. We only use this information as part of our equality monitoring.

You do not have to answer any of these questions.

Your age:

Do you consider yourself to have a disability:

Deafness or partial hearing loss.
Blindness or partial sight loss.
Full or partial loss of voice or difficulty speaking.
Learning disability.
Learning difficulty.
Developmental disorder.
Physical disability.
Mental health condition.
Long-term illness, disease or condition.
Other condition (please specify).
No condition.
Unknown.
Prefer not to say.

Specify your condition: (required)

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Your ethnic group:

Your ethnicity: (required)

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Sex and gender:

Specify your Sex/Gender: (required)

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Confirmation

Please tick to confirm that the information you have given us in this form is accurate to the best of your knowledge.

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