It was a hectic first month for Jim Martin, the new Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland.

As well as recruiting new staff, he dealt with around 26 complaints from all the Scottish police forces. They ranged from how police officers have dealt with the public during murder cases to how effectively police officers have communicated when dealing with the public.
Jim, aged 53 was appointed in January 2007 for three years and took up his post in April.

In an exclusive interview with the LOCAL NEWS he said, ‘The main reason I wanted to be Commissioner was to improve the existing complaints procedure which is seen in a very bad light. Although we don’t have current statistics for the number of complaints before this, there was definitely a bad perception. This is why the Scottish Executive introduced this to make the process independent, transparent, more effective and accessible to all. It is too soon to say how things are going to progress. However I believe that by the end of the year we will have fulfilled our goal of making the public more trusting of the complaints system.’

The role of  Complaints Commissioner Scotland was created by the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2006.
With an annual budget of £1million per year and funded by the Scottish Executive, the Commissioner’s role is to deal with non criminal complaints from the public.

Before a complaint is considered it has to have gone through the relevant police force or authority’s complaints process. The Commissioner, after dealing with a case, may instruct the relevant police force to re-examine it if he feels has not been dealt with properly. He can also direct who will re-examine it or he may even sit in on it where he feels that is necessary.

Jim, a father of four, was born Stirling and brought up in Larbert, where he attended the high school. He studied Economics at Heriot Watt University and after teacher training at Moray House, Edinburgh was a teacher at Falkirk High from 1975 to 79.  From 1987 to 1993 he was the General Secretary of the Education Institute Scotland. He had the distinction of being the youngest EIS representative ever. He followed that post by becoming service director of Scottish Amicable.