Source: www.scotsman.com --- Monday, February 27, 2017
The number of police officers there are in Scotland has become a very political issue. The number was placed firmly on the political map when the Scottish National Party promised in 2007 to increase the number of police officers by 1,000. It kept that pledge for two Holyrood election manifestos, so presumably it felt that it worked, and people actually felt safer simply by an increase in numbers, regardless of how those police officers were deployed. The keeping of that pledge while trying very hard to cut costs resulted in highly paid police officers being put in to back-room roles or management roles where civilians could have worked, so the extra 1,000 officers were not on the beat and perhaps not being very effective in the fight against crime. The SNP ditched the pledge last year. The SNP Scottish Government has also made the biggest change to Scotland’s policing for many years with the amalgamation of the eight regional forces in to one national one. It was hoped this would deliver significant cost savings by ending duplication. But Police Scotland has not had its problems to seek and the first Chief Constable appointed, Stephen House, bowed to the pressure his handling of the force had created and announced he was standing down in August 2015. He was replaced by Phil Gormley just over a year ago, but the problems have not gone away. Last month it was called “an organisation in crisis” after Auditor General Caroline Gardner ...
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