Today in the Scottish Parliament, Murdo Fraser MSP has called on the Scottish Government to produce relevant publicly available police strength statistics which break down the number of officers currently operational.
Controversy has brewed ever since the HM Inspector for Constabulary in Scotland stated that unless officers were performing operational duties maintaining 1000 extra bobbies was pointless. A recent investigation has claimed that only 8,700 of Scotland’s 17,000 officers are actually working on the beat.
Unison believe that many officers are now “backfllling” i.e. performing administrative and support staff roles that were previously fulfilled by civilian staff who were made redundant following the police merger.
Murdo has pressed the Government to improve the detail of the quarterly released police strength statistics to ensure boasts about police officer numbers stand up to fair and proper scrutiny.
Commenting Murdo Fraser MSP said:
“Once again we have a case of the Scottish Government covering their ears and refusing to acknowledge the serious problem of police officers covering back office roles.
“Under the SNP, Police Scotland has lurched from crisis to crisis and it is high time they started listening to independent experts, like the HM Inspector for Constabulary on issues such as this.
“There are clear instances of backfilling and communities up and down the country are being short changed as their PCs are busy doing admin rather than walking the beat.
“As a matter of priority the Scottish Government must produce detailed and publicly available statistics on the exact number of officers who are currently operational.”