ComplaintsNew

When a citizen comes to file a complaint (at the station desk, at the courthouse, by phone in game), a member records it in the Complaints module (Records group): who files, against whom, the facts, the date, the place and the attachments. The complaint is then assigned to someone, handled and closed, with a full history.

The module is enabled by default for the police and the justice department. Departments where it is enabled record and handle complaints, according to each rank’s permissions (see below). Citizens don’t file complaints themselves: a member always enters them.

Screenshot coming sooncomplaints

The Complaints module, Open tab

Recording a complaint

Screenshot coming sooncomplaint-new

A new complaint: complainant, accused, facts and attachments

1. Click Record a complaint.
2. If you can record in several departments, pick On behalf of which one.
3. Pick the Complainant among the citizens.
4. Set the Accused:
   • A citizen: pick their record (it can’t be the complainant);
   • Unknown: nobody has been identified;
   • Described: a free Description, for example “man in his thirties, red jacket, on a scooter”.
5. Describe the Facts: what the complainant reports.
6. Set the Date and time of the facts (in your organisation’s time zone) and, if you know it, the Place.
7. Add Attachments (photos): screenshots, damage photos, documents… 12 at most.
8. Click Record the complaint.

You become the complaint’s author; its number is set automatically, following the previous ones. It gets your organisation’s first “open” status (Received out of the box).

From a citizen’s record, the Complaints tab also has a Record a complaint button, with the complainant already picked.

The complaint list

Four tabs:

Tab	What it shows
Open	complaints to handle (status in the “open” category)
Closed	handled complaints (dismissed, forwarded…)
Assigned to me	complaints you are in charge of
Statuses	the status settings (see below)

Each row gives the number, the complainant, the accused (“against …”, or Unknown accused), the place, the date of the facts, who it is assigned to (or Unassigned) and the status. The search (Search a complaint) finds a complaint by its number, complainant, accused or place.

The list is bounded: it says how many complaints are shown, and Show more loads the next ones.

A complaint’s page

Screenshot coming sooncomplaint

An open complaint: facts, attachments, notes, assignment and handling

Clicking a complaint opens its page: Complainant, Accused, Facts, Date of the facts, Place, the department it was recorded on behalf of, who recorded it and when, then the Attachments. All complaints takes you back to the list.

• Notes: Add a note records a hearing, a step taken, a new element. Notes are shown newest first.
• Assignment: Assign to… opens the list of members who can handle complaints; the chosen member is notified in their bell, finds the complaint under Assigned to me and can handle it. Take back removes the assignment.
• Handling: pick the new status, grouped under Open or Closed; a Note (optional) can go with the change. Moving to a closed status records the closing date.
• History: the recording, each edit (before → after), each status, assignment, note, deletion or restoration, with its author.
• Edit reopens the entry window, prefilled.
• Delete the complaint is done by holding the button. It is a soft delete: an administrator restores it from the archives.

Investigation file

The page already has room for linking the complaint to an investigation file. It will come with the Investigation part; it is not available yet.

Statuses

Screenshot coming sooncomplaint-statuses

The Statuses tab: labels, colours and categories

Statuses belong to your organisation. Each has a Label, a Colour and a Category: Open (to handle) or Closed (handled). Out of the box:

Status	Category
Received	Open
In progress	Open
Forwarded	Closed
Dismissed	Closed

In the Statuses tab: Add a status, rename, change the colour or the category, reorder with the arrows, then Save the statuses. You need at least one open and one closed status, 12 at most.

• The first open status is the one a new complaint gets.
• A status carried by a complaint can’t be removed: rename it instead. Complaints follow the new label.
• Back to the starter statuses restores the list above.

On a citizen’s record

The Complaints tab of the citizen’s record lists their complaints, switching between Complainant (the ones they filed) and Accused (the ones against them), with the Record a complaint button, complainant prefilled.

Who can do what

Rights are set on the Complaints module of the matrix, in Ranks and permissions. Recording a complaint needs the permission in the department you record it on behalf of; for the rest, the permission in one of your departments is enough.

Permission	What it allows	Default
Complaints › See complaints	the list, the pages, and the Complaints tab of a citizen’s record	all ranks
Complaints › Record a complaint	Record a complaint	members and up
Complaints › Handle a complaint	change its status, add notes and attachments, Edit	members and up
Complaints › Assign a complaint	Assign to… and Take back	supervisors and up
Complaints › Delete a complaint	Delete the complaint (restorable)	supervisors and up
Complaints › Set the statuses	the Statuses tab	command

Two rights don’t depend on the matrix: the complaint’s author and the member it is assigned to always see it, and the assigned member can handle it.

Recording, edits, statuses, assignments, deletion and status settings are written to the audit log.