Investigating your complaint

Once you’ve made your complaint, there are several possible outcomes.

Every complaint is different but we’ll follow the legislation and the Police Investigations & Review Commissioner (PIRC) Statutory Guidance on the handling of complaints about the police in Scotland – March 2021 to try to find a satisfactory conclusion

What happens after I make a complaint?

If the reasons for your complaint are clear and we see it’s a minor, non-criminal complaint, we will record it. An officer from our Professional Standards Department will contact you to discuss the details of your complaint.

It may be that we can resolve your complaint quickly by providing information or explanation.

If we need to look at your complaint in more detail, our Professional Standards team will record it and contact you to explain the next steps. Your complaint may be allocated to an investigator to carry out further enquiry. 

If you make a complaint direct to the Police Investigations & Review Commissioner (PIRC), they will direct you back to Police Scotland. We will then follow the same process as if you had contacted us directly.

What happens after my complaint is recorded?

After your complaint has been assessed as requiring further enquiry, we will allocate it to an investigator who isn’t directly connected to your complaint to look into it.

They’ll get in touch with you to clarify any missing details and answer any questions you may have.

You’ll be told how your complaint will be investigated and how a decision will be reached. We'll ask you how you'd like to be contacted and keep you informed on the progress and outcome.

Find out more about what you can do if you're unhappy with the outcome of my complaint.

Why might my complaint not be dealt with?

Your complaint won't be progressed if it's not 'reasonable and proportionate' for us to do so.

This could be because we've already looked into it previously or you weren't directly affected by the events the complaint is about.