Our police services across the UK are under intense scrutiny. The onus is on us to nurture trust and legitimacy by demonstrating no tolerance for misogyny, racism and discrimination within policing and across society. Equally, ensuring an effective and professional policing response for victims and communities is a prerequisite for public confidence.
Two recent reports from Sir Michael Barber and Sir Tom Winsor both called for structural, cultural and operational reform of policing in England and Wales, as referred to in last week’s Guardian editorial.
But when discussing policing reform in Britain, it is important to consider the experiences of Police Scotland. Nine years ago, 10 policing organisations in Scotland merged into a single national police service of about 23,000 people, the second largest in the UK, serving a third of Britain’s land mass and communities in villages, towns, islands and cities.
Establishing a reformed service has been enormously challenging and we did not get everything right. However, much progress has been made. Under our structure, we have strengthened operational competence and provided direct access to all policing capabilities for every citizen.
More than 520 murders and homicides have been committed in Scotland since 2013. Only two are currently unsolved. Our safety and security operation for last November’s Cop26 resulted in no significant violence, disorder or injury and relatively few arrests. The climate change summit, along with our approach to policing during the pandemic, demonstrated our core duty and responsibility to enable the public to make their voices heard – and independent reviewing has largely concluded Police Scotland did so in line with our commitment to put human rights at the heart of all we do.
Last month, I announced Police Scotland will become the first service in the world to train and equip all operational officers with Naloxone, a life-saving overdose first aid nasal-spray, on a national basis, reflecting our broad mission to improve the safety and wellbeing of communities as enshrined in the law establishing Police Scotland.
Tests remain: operational failings, or when we don’t live up to our values, are rightly subject to critical review and require persistent leadership, focus and action. We must face up to the cultural challenges of UK policing as a whole, of other sectors and organisations, and of wider society. That’s been underlined by reports including Dame Elish Angiolini’s review of police complaints and individual cases such as Rhona Malone’s employment tribunal, describing unacceptable behaviours.
There is a moral imperative and operational necessity for policing to lead change to improve the experiences of all our communities, including our own officers and staff. Words and good intent are not enough. There must be action; practical, firm, progressive, visible action.
Structural simplicity and stability can help drive progress: our response to serious offending has been transformed under reform but we continue to listen so we can do better, our resolve to tackle violence against women and girls being a clear example. Last year, I was grateful to meet survivors to hear directly about their experiences of the criminal justice system. The voices and perspectives of survivors and groups such as Rape Crisis Scotland are vital and help us to improve our response to rape and sexual offending.
Every year since reform we have returned more than £200m to the public purse while providing better, more efficient policing. This remains an achievement and a challenge – especially given that serving increasingly complex community needs requires significant investment.
Digitally enabled offending such as online child sexual abuse and fraud continue to grow at a very high rate, underlining that online policing is frontline policing. We must build the workforce and tools to keep people safe in public, private and virtual spaces.
It is wrong to view community policing and specialist capability as competing imperatives – they complement each other and both are essential to build public confidence. Confidence to come forward. Confidence you will be treated fairly, with compassion and respect. Confidence our response will be professional and thorough.
Reform has enabled clearer communication, leadership and accountability – key when driving change. Last October, our That Guy public awareness campaign asked men to challenge their own and each other’s behaviours and attitudes towards women. This was an important message for Scottish society, including for us in policing – as individuals and as a service. A verification scheme, established to reassure women approached by lone officers, also reflected the onus on policing to accept responsibility for addressing public concerns.
Policing in Scotland is realistic about the challenges ahead but confident in the progress made and optimistic we can build on it. I am encouraged by the consistently strong levels of public confidence reported in our own research, and by the recent Scottish government household survey which found 87% of respondents trusted the police.
The key assessment I apply is whether our communities and people are safer and better served now than they would have been had reform not taken place - not only for the threats of today but those of tomorrow. The answer is yes. As we continue our own development, our offer is to share the insight and value that Scotland’s hard-earned lessons can provide to improve policing for communities across the UK.
Iain Livingstone is chief constable of Police Scotland
