Central Scotland Police

Professional Standards

On 5th January 2004 the invidivual units within the Professional Standards Department were re-titled to provide clarity in regard to the role of each. They are now entitled:

• Complains & Conduct department
• Professional Standards unit and Information Security
• Records Management / Freedom of Information and Data Protection department
• Records Bureau

The Officer in Charge of these areas is a Superintendant who is assisted by four full time Inspectors, one Sergeant, one Data Protection Officer, one Information Security Officer, one Records Managers, and two members of support staff who deal with administration and typing duties. The department also holds responsibility for the Force Records Bureau, which currently has nine staff members.

The individual responsibilities of the separate departments are as follows:

Complaints & Conduct department

This office deals with all matters of complaints against the Police on behalf of the Deputy Chief Constable, who is the designated discipline authority for the Force. Complaints fall into categories of criminal allegations, serious misconduct, minor misconduct, and quality of service issues. Each individual complaint is thoroughly assessed and investigated at an appropriate level.

The complaints office can be reached at complaints@centralscotland.police.uk

Professional Standards unit and Information Security

This is a relatively new department who will promote a knowledge and understanding of professional standards within the organisation through a policy of education to ensure integrity and ethical standards are maintained. It will assess the vulnerable areas of the Force that may be open to corruption and instigate processes to overcome any weaknesses identified.

The department will develop robust policies that will combine with the prevention and education strategy to raise the awareness of all staff to the issues of integrity, ethical behaviour, and security of information. Guidance on Information Security is contained within Force policies and all staff are issued with a comprehensive booklet.

Records Management / Freedom of Information and Data Protection department

The department is also responsible for Data Protection, Information Security, and Freedom of Information. The staff dealing with these areas provide training to all new members of staff and to appropriate training courses.

Audits are carried out on Force information systems to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act. Subject Access requests made by members of the public continue to rise and details of the procedure can be found on a downloadable form.

The rights under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act came into force on 1st January 2005, and the Freedom of Information Officer provides guidance and training and response in relation to for enquiries.

Records Bureau

This department has responsibility for ensuring that the Scottish Criminal Records Office and Police National Computer are timeously and accuretely updated with new criminal charges, amendments, images and ancillary infomation .... from the Force area of responsibility. It is essential that such information is accurate and quality control features highly in this regard.