How Scotland should be policed is under scrutiny. The latest proposals for centralising police functions are in danger of further corroding the relationship between Scotland's eight chief constables and senior civil servants, already fraught after suggestions that the remit of the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA), established by the previous Holyrood administration to create efficiencies by centralising back-office functions, should be widened.
A report from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) now proposes that the policing of Scotland's motorways, VIPs, serious fraud, counter-terrorism, the investigation of police corruption, air support and firearms should all come under the authority of the SPSA. The chief constable of Strathclyde, Steve House, does not see the transfer of operational functions from his force to the SPSA as the best solution. The report acknowledges that policing in Strathclyde, Scotland's largest force, would be diminished.
As the report acknowledges, the major part of police work will always be locally based. That means it will be most efficiently delivered by a force with a thorough knowledge of its area and a relationship with the community. At the same time, anti-terrorism measures, firearms training, serious fraud, drugs trafficking, complex homicides and response to large-scale emergencies require a high level of expertise which the smallest forces cannot provide. But much of this work is already being done by the Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency. The idea that Scotland should have a single, national police force is always in the background of these discussions. That is obviously resisted by the eight forces and their boards, and they are right to argue that local accountability is vital in effective policing. One police force directly answerable to government ministers will not build public trust or advance accountability, although there is an argument for reducing the number of forces to perhaps three or four.
If eight forces cannot provide the level of service required as crime, like business, becomes globalised and more sophisticated, then that will be too many. Before the fledgling SPSA accrues more powers, it must show it is fulfilling its remit. So far there is little to measure it against. Mr House believes there should be a debate on the options. That would be preferable to the unproductive spats between SPSA, HMIC and police chiefs.
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