Early warning signs of persistent complainants

Abstract

Using a retrospective case control study of 60 complainants from a Scottish police force and from the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland (PCCS), we aimed to devise a set of early warning signs to allow for the identification of complainants likely to become unusually persistent, and to examine the use of complaint management strategies in these cases. There were significant differences between the unusually persistent complainants and the other groups. There were several key complaint handling strategies that were not used. Early warning signs could potentially identify a group of complainants ‘at risk’ of becoming unusually persistent. Appropriate complaint handling strategies could be implemented both early and later in the complaints process to increase the likelihood of a successful outcome for both complainants and public bodies and lead to significant cost savings across the public sector.