Police Scotland

[Greymaster]

With air rifle licensing about to be dumped on Police Scotland, pity the shooting community as the force is found to be in crisis, with the latest debacle over the three day delay in dealing with the car crash and fatalities. (All due respect to the bereaved families).

Public confidence in Police Scotland is “unravelling” following the deaths of a couple who lay in a crashed car for three days, Labour has said amid a fresh slew of allegations that officers and emergency call handlers are struggling to cope with their duties. Hugh Henry, the party’s justice spokesman, claimed the force is “in crisis” and there was a “trinity of failure” comprising the Scottish Government, the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) and Sir Stephen House, the Chief Constable.

He highlighted the anonymous testimony of an officer with more than 20 years’ experience, who alleged that there was a backlog of 10,000 reports from the call centre that received the call about the fatal crash on the morning it happened.

The officer told the Sunday Mail that said experienced civilian staff have left the Bilston Glen call handling centre and have been replaced with police officers. Opposition parties have previously warned this would be a consequence of the SNP’s pledge to employ 1,000 extra officers.

He said the veteran sergeant who took the fatal crash call was not trained to use the computer system that logged calls and wrote down the information on a piece of paper passed to someone else.

His allegations emerged as official figures showed Police Scotland staff have been off work with stress for 53,000 days over the past two years. Two-thirds of those based at Bilston Glen, in Midlothian, applied for voluntary redundancy before the tragedy.
The SPA, which oversees the force, also came under pressure after it was disclosed they were warned 18 months before the tragedy that reducing the number of call handling centres could lead to the loss of experienced staff.
Meanwhile, more allegations emerged of lengthy delays for officers to respond to calls.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...onfidence-in-Police-Scotland-unravelling.html

 

[Woodsmoke]

I had reservations about the amalgamation of Scotlands regional forces into Police Scotland from the beginning. I was prepared to be proven wrong though, as I was certain the SNP knew what they were doing. I'm no longer as certain

 

[Mungo]

Amalgamation per se is not the problem - I think it was probably inevitable.

Speaking to friends who are serving bobbies, Stephen House and the way it was done is THE problem.

But yes - it does rather illustrate the SNP's inability to administer...well...anything.

 

[geordieh]

Amalgamation per se is not the problem - I think it was probably inevitable.

Speaking to friends who are serving bobbies, Stephen House and the way it was done is THE problem.

But yes - it does rather illustrate the SNP's inability to administer...well...anything.

But when this was pointed out Pre referendum some of us were told we were bigoted and racist.But watch it spiral even further downwards when they have to police the airgun law.And after that even bigger problems to come.

 

[Woodsmoke]

watch it spiral even further downwards when they have to police the airgun law.And after that even bigger problems to come

Very worrying!

 

[dodgyrog]

I wouldn't worry, the SNP will ban all firearm ownership in Scotland once Devo-max goes through!

 

[matt_hooks]

If they do, I'm heading back south!

 

[matt_hooks]

Then again, perhaps that's exactly what they want? :O

 

[Feugh]

as I was certain the SNP knew what they were doing

One should never make such assumptions.....
The longer things go on, the more I come to the opinion that all political parties are very heavily constrained with regards to what they can do because of external forces largely outwith their control, and that if any party makes huge promises to change things then either they're lying or what they will actually achieve will end up being completely different to what they want to achieve. Hence, a promise to employ many more police officers doesn't actually lead to more officers on the beat, it leads to problems in a call centre because one can't employ all these extra officers and balance the budget at the same time without laying off experienced call centre employees.
I'm quite certain that more things like this will come up in the near future, no matter how hard folk try to hide the truth.

 

[stubear]

I have a good friend who works for the Police and he's actually leaving them to pursue a different career as a result of budget cuts, red tape and general mis-management of resources. This is apparently happening more and more, where people join the police from school or uni and then leave 5-10 years later when they get fed up with how everything operates, so they keep losing more and more experienced front line staff all the time.

Its a crying shame because our police force (sorry, "service") used to be world admired but a variety of right-on senior managers and politicians have left it understaffed and overworked, with front line staff left woefully under supported and (IMHO anyway) underpaid.

Its not helped by the fact that the politicians generally get 5 years to tackle anything so they tend to do for the winning headlines and quick fixes rather than grasping the bull by the horns and dealing with the changes that are needed - Less red tape, more frontline staff etc.

Ultimately the police should be a largely flat management structure with 80% of headcount on the front line. The way its set up now is probably the other way around, hence 3 day delays in dealing with fatal car crashes and any shooting/licensing related work taking a much lower priority.

Re the creation of Police Scotland, its no surprise at all that its been so badly mismanaged as it was the government that managed the change. Their job should basically be to erect street lighting and park benches, and anything else they touch usually ends up as a total bodge job.

The O2 arena (formerly the millenium dome) is a case in point - When Labour ran it it was full of politically correct waffle and Cherie Blair, and now O2 own it and its full of Metallica and Led Zepplin and is one of the most sought after concert venues in the world.