Craig Naylor: Every time there's a failure by a police service, it affects public trust

In the decade since its creation, Police Scotland has never been far from the headlines. Born out of financial imperative, the national force came into being following the merger of eight regional forces. 

And it wasn’t long before the new force found itself embroiled in controversy. Its first chief constable, Sir Stephen House, left after call handling errors meant it took officers three days to respond to a crash on the A9 which caused the deaths of Lamara Bell, 25, and John Yuill, 28.

In the same year, a 31-year-old black man, Sheku Bayoh, died in police custody after being detained by officers. House’s replacement, Phil Gormley, would quit three years later with bullying allegations hanging over him. 

Craig Naylor was part of Police Scotland in those early days. Now as HM Inspector of Constabulary, he is charged with overseeing the work of his former colleagues. But he’s in no doubt that the merger improved policing in Scotland and made it a safer place to live.

“I know the chief constable [Sir Iain Livingstone] talks regularly about there being one unsolved murder since the creation of Police Scotland – I think that is quite incredible,” he says. “But what’s more incredible is the dramatic reduction in the murder rate.”

Figures show there were 53 recorded homicides in Scotland in 2021/22 – the lowest figure since comparable records began in 1976. As recently as 2005/06, that figure peaked at close to 140.

But with violent crime on a downward trend across most the western world, I ask Naylor whether that fall in the murder rate would’ve happened anyway, even without Police Scotland.

“I don’t see that as just a natural phenomenon,” Naylor says. “What we’ve seen is a professionalising of policing over the last 15 to 20 years that is basing a lot more of how policing does its business on an evidence-based approach.

“The gangs that we used to see in Glasgow, parts of Edinburgh and elsewhere have gone, largely. We don’t see those rampaging groups of youths with knives that we saw 15 to 20 years ago. I put a lot of that down to more scientific approaches to policing. So, do I think Police Scotland is a success? Yes, I do.”

It’s a long way from when Naylor joined Lothian and Borders Police as a new recruit in the late 1980s. While he was surrounded by hard-working and professional colleagues, he says there was a culture that was also “hard-playing, at times hard-drinking” and where female officers were vastly outnumbered by their male colleagues.

“When I joined in 1989, I was one of a class of 30 which came into Lothian and Borders Police. I was the only graduate and came into a very mixed group of former military, school leavers, joiners and electricians. 

“If I recall correctly, there were six women on my course. It was a very male-dominated environment… A lot of the senior officers had either come from a military background or had been taught by someone from a military background, so you could still see that sort of DNA from the post-war generations…”

Not long after joining the police, Naylor helped investigate the murder of Paul Sheldon, a 20-year-old student stabbed to death in Edinburgh. The case bookended the criminal investigation part of his career along with the 2007 hit-and-run of Jack Anderson, 10. The schoolboy’s killer was found guilty of culpable homicide rather than murder, something that still rankles with Naylor.

As HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland since last March, Naylor is currently undertaking an investigation into the “organisational culture” of Police Scotland. It comes amid renewed focus on the Metropolitan Police, in particular, following the murder of Sarah Everard at the hands of serving officer Wayne Couzens. A review published last month by Baroness Casey found the London force to be institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic.

I ask Naylor what he expects to find during the inspection into Police Scotland, the second largest force in the UK after the Met.

“We’re looking at vetting; we’re looking how the organisation trains its leaders; what are the key issues that staff and people within the organisation feel need to be addressed…

“I think the [vetting] system in Scotland is different from England and Wales and that the people who have been leading on this are exceptionally strong candidates. That doesn’t mean that people won’t have slipped through the net, but I think the processes on initial selection and specialist vetting will be quite good.

“Where I think there are some areas for improvement is around re-vetting of staff later in their career. If you’re only vetted when you join the organisation and never vetted again, I think that’s poor. That’s been Police Scotland’s position previously and they’re in the process of changing that.

“What do I think we’ll find? I don’t know. From what I’ve been told, Police Scotland are comfortable that they have a good process in place – that it’s rigorous. As with everything, there will be areas that can be improved upon.”

I ask Naylor specifically about Everard, the 33-year-old who was kidnapped, raped and murdered by Couzens in 2021. The case caused huge reputational damage for the Met, but does Naylor think that affects policing more generally?

“I think so. I don’t think people in Edinburgh or Elgin or wherever else draw a distinction between what’s happening in London and what’s happening in Scotland. Every time there’s a failure by a police service, it affects the public’s trust in the force that polices their area. 

“One of the things we want to show [with our inspection] is whether Scotland is different from England and Wales. I suspect it is; I suspect we’ve got evidence to support that.”

Naylor points to the case of Rhona Malone, a former armed officer who won a £1m payout from Police Scotland after a tribunal found evidence of a “sexist culture” in the national force’s firearms unit. The case followed a report by former Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini which highlighted concerns around the treatment of female recruits but also those from ethnic minorities and the LGBT community.

Naylor admits to seeing sexism, racism and misogyny over the course of his career and says he has always sought to challenge it, either formally or informally. He uses the example of an officer sending a racist email about Barack Obama around the time the US politician became president. 

“Things like that – they’re supposed to be upholding the law and yet they themselves are breaking the law. We dismissed that officer and disciplined the sergeant. I’ve seen it – it exists. You need to be encouraging people to call it out and to give them a voice and support when they do.”

Naylor recently attended some of the public inquiry taking place into the death of Bayoh. While the inquiry is still ongoing, he expects its findings to make difficult reading for the national force.

The policing operation at a vigil in memorial of Sarah Everard held in Clapham, London in 2021

“It’s a very rigourous investigation and I think will come out with a lot of challenging points for Police Scotland. I think there’s learning to be had and it will be a difficult report to read when it comes out.”

More generally, I ask Naylor if police officers need to be held to a higher standard than those working in other professions.

“Yes, I do. It’s been a topic of conversation in our office and throughout my career. As soon as you take a warrant card into your possession, you’re given a power that few others in society have. You’re trusted to exercise that power legitimately and with diligence. We expect our police officers to do that compassionately and keep people safe. With that great power comes great responsibility.” 

Police Scotland’s current chief constable, Sir Iain Livingstone, will retire this summer, having led the force through a period of relative stability. But his successor will take over the running of an organisation facing huge budgetary pressures and where the number of officers last year fell to the lowest level since the force came into existence.

“Policing remains an exciting and engaging career,” Naylor says, “but it does have its challenges. The impact of dealing with dead bodies, people who have been stabbed, the mental health crisis – all these things takes it out of you. The wellbeing of officers and staff has to be one of the key focuses of the organisation. 

“Current research suggests most people will have four or five ‘adverse experiences’ in their lives, coming across a dead body, for example. The expectation is that police officers have over a thousand adverse experiences they will deal with – that has a significant mental and psychological toll. Dealing with that has got to be important and got to be at the forefront of the new chief constable’s to-do list.”