Police chief urges forces to examine sharing resources

Published on Sunday 27 June 2010 22:22

A SENIOR police officer has warned that "radical" change is needed to the way forces are structured if front-line services are to be protected from cuts.

Lothian and Borders Chief Constable David Strang said funding could be cut by a quarter over four years.

He stressed his commitment to frontline policing, but suggested that Scottish forces should look at pooling their resources in other areas, such as "back office" operations.

In a TV interview yesterday, he said: "I think all of us in the public sector are coming to terms with the scale of the challenges we face. Just take policing across Scotland: if we had to implement a 16 per cent reduction that would be 2,500 officers. Clearly we won't reduce front-line police officers because our commitment is to protecting communities, it is to delivering frontline services.

"But if we're going to face the challenges and make the savings we need to, then we want to look at headquarters operations, we want to look at shared services.

"What I mean by a radical new approach to public services is not just looking within the police world, but right across the public sector.

"Take child protection, for instance – GPs, health visitors are involved in that, (as are] social workers, teachers and police officers. We work very closely and we need to do more of that joint working in a radical new way than simply in our own organisations."