A POLICE chief received a commendation for “distinguished service” months after the force upheld a complaint of neglect of duty against her.
Former Assistant Chief Constable Kate Thomson was awarded the Queen's Police Medal despite Police Scotland ruling that she had not got back in touch with the wife of an undercover officer who had raised concerns about her husband’s welfare.
The retired undercover officer, who were are referring to as 'Peter' to protect his identity, says he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder due to his job and claimed lack of support contributed to the breakdown of his marriage.
Peter has accused the now abolished Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, and latterly Police Scotland, of “poor” welfare support.
In 2011, Peter’s then wife contacted Thomson, then a detective superintendent, about her husband’s welfare.
Four years later, she made a formal complaint to Police Scotland’s chief constable about Thomson’s handling of her concerns.
In May 2016, Carole Auld, chief superintendent in the Professional Standards Department, contacted the woman about the outcome of the probe.
One of the complaints had been “neglect of duty - failure to communicate” and this section of the response quoted the officer’s wife: “It was such a terrible time, I explained everything to Kate Thomson when she visited me...I was upset and crying. Kate said all the right things...she said she would help [Peter], support him, welfare him and make sure me and the boys were alright. My expectations at that point was that she would get back in touch with me.’
Auld said Thomson "agrees with your position that you did indeed raise these matters with her”.
She continued: “Thomson advises that as a consequence of your personal meeting...she set in motion an action plan for your husband to ensure his welfare was to the fore...Thomson agrees that in so doing the focus was upon your husband’s action plan and she accepts that she did not follow up contact with you.”
Auld concluded: “I therefore uphold this allegation and advise that...Thomson and Police Scotland apologises.”
Months after the “neglect of duty” complaint was upheld Thomson was awarded a QPM.
Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Alan Speirs said: "While Police Scotland accepts there was a failure to communicate with the officer's wife, this complaint was fully and appropriately investigated and a written apology given; in line with all complaint handling procedures the complainant was afforded the opportunity to refer matters to PIRC if she was dissatisfied."
Thomson did not provide a comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here