A public trust complaint can be summarily dismissed if it is regarded as “trivial, frivolous, vexatious or wade in bad faith”, if it can be dealt with by another Act of Parliament, or if the RCMP deems that an investigation is not necessary or reasonably practicable. Complaints that are dismissed because there is a criminal investigation or coroner’s investigation ought to be sent to the Commission for Complaints Against the RCMP (CPC) for review as these reasons are commonly misused to dismiss complaints. Inform the CPC that these other investigations are not able to address professional misconduct and accordingly your complaint was improperly dismissed.  If your complaint is dismissed due to a Chair-initiated complaint investigation into the same matter, request a review and state that the RCMP Act does not rule out parallel complaints. You may have to set out reasons why your complaint differs from the Chair's complaint.

There is no time limit for requesting a review but it is best to make such requests to the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP as soon as possible.

The RCMP will acknowledge the receipt of your complaint in writing. An officer not named in the complaint will conduct an investigation and send you reports on a regular basis so that you are aware of the status of your investigation. Minor delays in correspondence are common.  Contact the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP or the investigator if any delay is excessive. Note that complaints may take months to investigate, but you should be contacted throughout.

When the investigation is complete they will send you a letter outlining the results of the investigation and any actions they plan to take as a result of the investigation. If you are not satisfied with the results of the investigation, you are entitled to request a review or a public hearing with the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP.