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Drawer 11

A complaint about police, written as a post-mortem

Written so that nobody has to be blamed for the reader to agree. Day by day, with their own words quoted at each step.

Subject: Complaint — [their reference][your full name], DOB [your date of birth]

Complainant: [your full name], DOB [your date of birth], [your email].
My matter: [their reference].
Request: I have a disability affecting speech. Please correspond in writing.

Good morning,

Thank you for the work you do. If there were a way to do this with no blame, I would prefer it. If you search for a Google post-mortem you will see what I mean. I do not think individuals are responsible for what a system encourages.

1. Day one

What the people who were there recorded. Quote them: the ambulance sheet, the hospital note, the first police entry. Name the page.

2. Day two

Where the first concern came from. Who was there, who was not, and what each one’s prior record with you shows. Quote it, with the date.

3. What the file did with it

[what happened]. Quote the entry that turned one thing into another, and the entry that recorded the original. Put them next to each other.

4. What was never obtained

The documents that would have answered the question, that are not in the brief. List them.

5. The ask

Please confirm, in writing, who made the entry at step 3, on what basis, and whether the documents at step 4 were sought.

[your full name]
today

Which body

WA Police complaints, in writing. The complaint form is on police.wa.gov.au under Complaints; keep a PDF of what you send.

Which clock

No statutory limit. Send it while the records still exist.

police.wa.gov.au

Which document

Nothing. Quote the incident number, the brief number and the court number. The records are theirs.

The receipts
Quote the document. Name what it shows. Ask for confirmation in writing. A judgement with no receipt under it is the other side’s move.The method every drawer here uses