The number of allegations made against police officers increased by 13% last year, according to a report by the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland.
A total of 7,933 allegations, contained within 4,379 complaint cases, were received by the country's eight forces between April 1, 2011 and March 31 this year, compared to 7,009 during the same period the previous year.
There was also a 4% rise in complaint cases, which were up from 4,206 in 2010/11.
The report, Police Complaints: Statistics for Scotland 2011-12, said the most common (36.9%) type of allegations disposed of were in the "irregular procedure" category, where it is thought officers have not carried out their duty well.
Incivility, where an officer is seen to have acted in a rude manner, made up 15.3% of the complaint allegations disposed of during the period. A further 11.6% of the disposed-of allegations were "neglect of duty", which relates to officers who are said to have failed to perform a duty such as submitting a report following an investigation.
While the total number of complaints was up, cases referred to the Area Procurator Fiscal fell to 479 last year from 649 the period before, a drop of 26.2%.
In 2011/12, 152 allegations resulted in misconduct proceedings against the officer or officers involved, and a further 29 led to criminal convictions.
Scotland's largest force, Strathclyde, received almost a third (31.2%) of all complaints, despite serving 42.2% of the population. It actually had the lowest proportion per head, with 6.1 cases per 10,000 people, compared to Tayside Police which had 11.4 per 10,000, the highest off all the forces.
The average number of cases for the whole of Scotland is 8.4 per 10,000 population.
Professor McNeill, Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland, said: "While it is disappointing that both cases and allegations increased this year, I am happy that the longer term picture remains one of declining numbers of complaints about the police in Scotland."
