Deputy Chief Constable Neil Richardson, who is in charge of the force’s Counter Corruption Unit (CCU), allegedly failed to properly deal with criminal complaints made about officers in his team.
The elite unit was set up to weed out dodgy cops involved in organised crime.
But it has been mired in controversy since its inception including allegations it broke the law in trying to identify officers who leaked stories to the Press.
Complaints about Richardson – who announced early this month he was stepping down from Police Scotland – have been lodged with the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) in the last week.
The allegations contain four claims that the officer – who has enjoyed an unblemished police career – was guilty of “neglect of duty” and a separate claim of alleged “corrupt practices”.
The probe will also look at the conduct of another senior officer – Assistant Chief Constable Ruaraidh Nicolson – who is facing three complaints over “neglect of duty” allegedly dating from 2006 to 2012.
The SPA probe into allegations concerning Richardson follows on from an employment tribunal which heard similar claims.
The Glasgow tribunal heard earlier this month that another serving police officer was claiming Richardson ignored complaints his team had broken the law.
PC Andy Reid, who was cleared of breaking data protection law last year after a six-year investigation estimated to have cost £500,000, claimed CCU officers threatened colleagues, shouted and swore at them and attempted to extract false statements from them during their probe into him and his former partner Amanda Daly, another serving officer.
He says Richardson should have passed on his allegations to the Crown Office to investigate but failed to do so.
Aamer Anwar, PC Reid’s solicitor, claimed the force had to get its house in order.
“Under no circumstances should someone in charge of the Counter Corruption Unit be able to decide on whether it has broken the law or not after receiving a complaint,” he said.
“Police Scotland has big problems it is failing to address.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We cannot comment on cases in which there are on-going matters.
“The DCC would always instruct criminal allegations be reported to Crown irrespective of who within Police Scotland those allegations are towards.”
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