The Scottish Government’s handling of Police Scotland has reached a record low point as the number of active officers in Scotland falls to its lowest level in 14 years. The warning signs for this crisis have been clear to see from 2020 when Police Scotland’s Chief Constable Iain Livingstone told MSPs that the force would have no choice but to cut the number of police officers due to a £36 million deficit in funding from the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government’s ignorance of this warning has resulted in the number of active full-time police officers falling below 17,000 for the first time since 2008, with over 300 officers leaving the force this year. Additionally, police officer retirement rates are 70% higher than usual, as officers are choosing to leave the force early in response to changes to pension agreements. This will see experienced police officers with over 25 years’ service receive less than they were initially promised upon retirement. The SNP should be utterly ashamed of this poor treatment of experienced police officers who have spent their lives serving and protecting the public.
Responding to this crisis, Pam Gosal – Scottish Conservative Member of the Scottish Parliament for the West Scotland Region – challenged Keith Brown, the SNP’s Cabinet Secretary for Justice, on this issue in the Scottish Parliament Chamber:
“There are fewer than 17,000 police officers in Police Scotland for the first time ever. It is suggested that one in 10 officers are considering leaving Police Scotland after the introduction of the pension arrangements. The recent pay offer has been branded as disgraceful and the general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation says that the spending review will mean ‘flat cash for police’ and that officer numbers will ‘plummet’. What action will the Scottish Government take to prevent a mass exodus of police officers who are biding their time until retirement?”
People from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities in the United Kingdom are much more likely to be victims of crime than those from white communities. This claim is supported by The UK Government’s Ethnicity Facts and Figures which states that men from mixed ethnic backgrounds were most likely to be victims of crime than any other ethnic group, followed by those from the Black and Asian Communities, with White individuals being the least likely to be victims of crime. As such, the Scottish Nationalist’s poor governance of Scotland’s police service will have a direct and dangerous impact on Scotland’s BAME Communities.
These dramatic falls in Scotland’s Policing numbers represent a real challenge to protecting Scotland’s growing population and put those most vulnerable at greater risk of being victims of Scotland’s increasing crime rate. The mismanagement of Scotland’s valued policing service is just the latest in a long line of the SNP’s failings during their 15 years in government, with Scotland’s education, health and transport services still failing to deliver for the taxpayers. Scotland is not stronger under the SNP’s lacklustre governance, and we deserve better.