Report – Police Scotland – PIRC/00759/25
The Complaints
The complaints in this case arose after the applicant was issued with a Recorded Police Warning in January 2025, and after a separate incident which took place on a bus in March 2025, whereby a bus driver asked the applicant to remove her hijab so that he could see her face when she was using a bus pass.
We have reviewed the handling of five complaints, namely that:
1. the police gave the applicant insufficient updates;
2. a service advisor was dismissive and rude to the applicant;
3. the police failed to note a statement from the applicant;
4. a police officer told the applicant nothing further could be done, and no further enquiry would be carried out, despite the availability of CCTV evidence; and
5. a police officer informed the applicant that no hate crime or hate incident had taken place.
Police Scotland’s Decision
Police Scotland did not uphold the applicant’s complaints.
Our Findings
We have found that Police Scotland did not handle any of the applicant’s complaints to a reasonable standard.
Consequently, we have made a two recommendations and identified two learning points to address the shortcoming in Police Scotland’s handling of complaints. In summary, we have recommended that Police Scotland provide the applicant with a further response to complaints 3 and 5.
Our recommendations and learning points should be implemented by Police Scotland within two months of the date of this report.
Police Bodies: Police Scotland