r/Glasgow Tools

Title
Author	Throwaway070511
Comment	IF you come out of custody with injuries or want to make a complaint: 13. Document injuries professionally either at a hospital or a GP. Take photographs. Make sure you have witnesses. These need to be backed up by somebody who is seen to be unbiased. 14. Same applies to damaged property. Take pictures of everything and make sure to get written repair quotes. You may have to pay upfront then later claim this back. 15. The police are essentially unregulated. They investigate their own complaints — often this just gives them the opportunity to cover themselves legally (hence why they work in pairs). 16. Write everything out chronologically and send it to professional standards as a complaint. Expect to get a less than adequate response. The only reason you would do this is to see if they will admit liability. 17. If you feel compelled to, write to your MSP. In my experience as much as I’m pro Independence the SNP MSPs won’t challenge the Police as much as other party MSPs will. If the Tories have any excuse to complain about what they like to call Nicola’s Army they’ll do it. Pretty much the only time the Tories are good for anything is when they get to criticise how the SNP deal with justice. 18. PIRC regulate all complaints against Police Scotland but they are made up mostly of ex police officers. They’ll tell you they will use it for organisational learning then never learn from it. It’s a waste of your time. 19. Journalists usually won’t touch it unless criminal proceedings are finalised. 20. If you’ve been “injured” mentally or physically by the Police the best thing you can do is hire a Personal Injury Solicitor - some of them will work on a no win no fee basis. Although it’s worth noting that a lot of them will only go against the Police if there’s clear evidence of malpractice / false arrest / accountability and if they strongly feel they can win the case. That’s why it’s important that you document your injuries and damage to property! 21. Finally, if you genuinely feel like you’ve been a victim of Police Scotland please don’t give up and fight them on it. They don’t really care if you write a complaint but they do start to notice when they have to pay out compensation claims and this seems to be the only way to channel the corruption. 22. There have been attempts made in the last couple of years’ to regulate them (aka questions around PIRC’s powers were raised in Dame Elish Angiolini’s review report into police complaints handling, investigations and misconduct which can be read here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/independent-review-complaints-handling-investigations-misconduct-issues-relation-policing/ But we have a long way to go, and the current Justice Secretary Keith Brown is completely useless and runs away from most opportunities to address the issues across the court system. He makes Humza Yousaf look good and that’s really saying something. I hope this helps someone! Peace, love, and f**k the Police.
Reddit Link	https://www.reddit.com/r/glasgow/comments/vndjd3/do_you_know_your_rights_when_dealing_with_police/ie68t9v/
Created	Wed 29th Jun 2022 12:29pm
Status	()

IF you come out of custody with injuries or want to make a complaint:

13. Document injuries professionally either at a hospital or a GP. Take photographs. Make sure you have witnesses. These need to be backed up by somebody who is seen to be unbiased.
14. Same applies to damaged property. Take pictures of everything and make sure to get written repair quotes. You may have to pay upfront then later claim this back.
15. The police are essentially unregulated. They investigate their own complaints — often this just gives them the opportunity to cover themselves legally (hence why they work in pairs).
16. Write everything out chronologically and send it to professional standards as a complaint. Expect to get a less than adequate response. The only reason you would do this is to see if they will admit liability.
17. If you feel compelled to, write to your MSP. In my experience as much as I’m pro Independence the SNP MSPs won’t challenge the Police as much as other party MSPs will. If the Tories have any excuse to complain about what they like to call Nicola’s Army they’ll do it. Pretty much the only time the Tories are good for anything is when they get to criticise how the SNP deal with justice.
18. PIRC regulate all complaints against Police Scotland but they are made up mostly of ex police officers. They’ll tell you they will use it for organisational learning then never learn from it. It’s a waste of your time.
19. Journalists usually won’t touch it unless criminal proceedings are finalised.
20. If you’ve been “injured” mentally or physically by the Police the best thing you can do is hire a Personal Injury Solicitor - some of them will work on a no win no fee basis. Although it’s worth noting that a lot of them will only go against the Police if there’s clear evidence of malpractice / false arrest / accountability and if they strongly feel they can win the case. That’s why it’s important that you document your injuries and damage to property!
21. Finally, if you genuinely feel like you’ve been a victim of Police Scotland please don’t give up and fight them on it. They don’t really care if you write a complaint but they do start to notice when they have to pay out compensation claims and this seems to be the only way to channel the corruption.
22. There have been attempts made in the last couple of years’ to regulate them (aka questions around PIRC’s powers were raised in Dame Elish Angiolini’s review report into police complaints handling, investigations and misconduct which can be read here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/independent-review-complaints-handling-investigations-misconduct-issues-relation-policing/

But we have a long way to go, and the current Justice Secretary Keith Brown is completely useless and runs away from most opportunities to address the issues across the court system. He makes Humza Yousaf look good and that’s really saying something.

I hope this helps someone!

Peace, love, and f**k the Police.