Third Rate Service

I had a close encounter with a really poor public service the other week which is known as the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).

Now I know that the Justice Secretary - Kenny McAskill - is carrying out a review of the courts 'service' and if my experience is anything to go by, then I would have to say that COPFS is a shambolic mess.

I contacted these public officials about a recent crime which has affected me and other local residents in the area that we live - but when I did so I was told that it could take up to 28 days for COPFS to reply - even though it was a routine inquiry and not exactly the hunt for Jack the Ripper.

To add insult to injury, COPFS then decided that they didn't have to answer me at all - because they couldn't be sure that I was who I said I was - or that I lived where I said I lived.

So COPFS decided to dispatch a Police Officer from Police Scotland - i.e. the one who investifgated the original incident and whom I had spoken to over the phone a number of times - to come along to my place of abode and identify me in the flesh, so to speak.

Now I thought at the time - and still do so now - that this seemd more like an episode of Fawlty Towers than an upstanding citizen's encounter with a modern, 21st century public service - and I also remember thinking: 

'Why in the name of God is a police officer instructed to come and identify me when, of course, he should be out there fighting crime - catching thieves, murderers and rapists?'   
      
As it turned out the Police Officer didn't come when he said he would - for operational reasons - and by this time we had gone well past the 28 day time limit within which COPFS had said they would respond to my original enquiry.

So I have complained about the whole business which has become a complete farce - and makes me wonder how many other public 'services' in Scotland are run in this ridiculous way.

I have to say that my experience of complaining to giant bureaucracies is not great - but on the other hand if you don't create a fuss, then these kind of people take the long suffering members of the public - even more for granted.

I will let you know how I get on in the days ahead.