Rural Scotland facing ‘policing deserts’

Some in remote areas are having to wait around five hours for police to turn up at their door, the Scottish Police Federation (SPF) claims.

Speaking at a fringe at this year’s SNP conference, SPF general secretary David Kennedy said: "The biggest issue we've got with the numbers in Scotland is the size of Scotland.

“So we need more police officers because of the different policing models across the country and because of the distances they have to travel.”

Earlier this year, it was revealed that as of December 2023, police numbers had reached a 15-year record-low, standing at 16,339 full-time equivalent officers.

Kennedy called for renewed benefits and better resources to fix the recruitment crisis.

He said: "In rural areas, police officers used to get housing and rent allowances. They don’t get these since September 1994 when that was phased out. So, what's going to happen is rural areas are not going to have somebody who's going to be there for a long time. They're going to have people supported for 18 months at a time. They're going to come in and we've got a massive concern about them because it's so important that the police are part of the community."

He continued: “We are seeing burnout at a really early stage in their career. And that's down to resources. We're seeing a lot of people leaving the service and going to other careers.

“As police officers, when they are out at work, they realise they're just going from call to call to call to call.

“And it's really frustrating for them. Because for most police officers, they join the police service to look after their community and protect them. And what they then find is they can't do the job to the best of their ability because they don't have the time.”

He also claimed police offices are not fit for purpose, saying they “have not been looked after” since being installed years ago.

He said:  “The police stations that you are not seeing anymore, the problem is that for the last 20 years they've not looked after them.

“And, if you don't look after your house or the building or wherever you stay after 20 years the chances are it won't be fit to live in and that's what's happened to police offices and what we're now seeing is that everybody is selling them off because there's no point in fixing them.”

He also said body-worn cameras are now to be deployed next year, despite plans for them to be rolled out this summer. 

“There's a lot of things going on for me that just don't add up to where we are. If that's how the business side of policing has been ran then it's been run wrong,” he added.

Acknowledging the pressure police authorities are under, justice secretary Angela Constance has called for “better collaboration” and “handling procedures” between justice services, policing, and mental health services.

She said: “We all want the right people to get the right care at the right time. But there is an issue here about police officers just constantly being the first service that are called upon. So, we are having to spend an increasing amount of time dealing with people in distress.

“That's basically an ongoing societal issue that across the government we've been focused on addressing. But there is a need to have better handling procedures between police officers and, indeed, medical staff.”