Senior officers hint at part-time policing to deal with cutbacks

Published on Thursday 2 September 2010 14:05

RURAL areas would be served by part-time police officers under controversial proposals to cope with severe budget cuts faced by Scottish forces.

Senior officers have discussed adopting the fire service model with retained staff responding to incident call-outs, but not providing a visible presence on the streets.

David O'Connor, president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (Asps), said the plans had been raised "at a senior level".

It was discussed at a meeting of Asps national executive on Wednesday. Both Asps and the Scottish Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, are opposed to the plans.

Mr O'Connor, whose Northern Constabulary covers a sixth of the UK's landmass, said: "There's been suggestion that policing should be delivered in some form of retainer basis. Policing is a 24/7 service and we should not be trying to draw comparisons with the fire service. We must have visible policing. Serious and organised crime can also take place in rural communities, such as with cannabis farms, we have to be able to protect this."

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpos) will report on the likely impact of the cuts to the Scottish Policing Board on 13 September. The full extent of the cuts faced by Scottish forces will not be known until after the UK and Scottish governments' spending reviews later on in the autumn, but is expected to be up to 25 per cent over four years.

Strathclyde Chief Constable Steve House has backed cutting costs by merging Scotland's eight forces into one. However, in January, Ian Latimer, the outgoing Chief Constable of Northern, warned such a move would leave rural areas more vulnerable to crime. He said: "One of the issues I would have is that the potential increase in centralisation will actually lead to reduction in our capability to tackle serious crime."

The creation of a retained service is not a formal Acpos policy and it is not clear whether it would be made up of current full-time officers, recently retired ones or special constables. Police officers cannot be made redundant by law.

Les Gray, chairman of the Scottish Police Federation, who is due to discuss the likely impact of the cuts with justice secretary Kenny MacAskill on Monday, said: "The people of Scotland don't want to have to wait for a crime to be committed before they see a police officer. Police would not be in favour of that (retained officers] - it would be a dilution of the service we provide. That's not the way it should be in Scotland."

Iain Whyte, chairman of the Scottish Police Conveners Forum, said: "Obviously it's necessary for Acpos to look at all options given the likely budget cuts that may be coming. This sounds like a very radical proposal indeed and not one I can imagine any politician would be supportive of."

David Sinclair, of Victim Support Scotland, said: "We understand why organisations will look at various ways of restructuring to save money. But having retained officers rather than full-time officers would not be in the interests of victims of crime."

A spokesman for Acpos said he had no knowledge of any discussions regarding the use of retained staff.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Deployment of officers is an operational matter for Chief Constables."