Number of serving officers drops by 50

Published on 07/06/2011 10:31

THE number of officers serving in Lothian and Borders Police has fallen by 50 since the same time last year, new figures have revealed.

A total of 2959 full-time equivalent officers were on the force at the end of March compared with 3009 a year before.

In January this year, police chiefs decided to abandon a recruitment freeze and set out to hire 36 officers despite fears over the force's budget.

The move was made to satisfy the demand by Scottish Finance Minister John Swinney in his November Budget to maintain police numbers.

The Scottish Government figures also showed that there were 17,263 police officers in Scotland on 31 March this year. This is 46 more than the previous quarter.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said the figures showed that the SNP's pledge to put an additional 1,000 police officers in Scotland's communities was delivered in the lifetime of the last parliament.