NI police chief backs similar single force for Scotland

A SENIOR police officer from Northern Ireland has backed Scotland’s move to a single force which would go some way to mirroring his own.

Assistant Chief Constable Alistair Finlay, formerly of Strathclyde Police, said there had been no calls to return to a regional structure since the move was made in 2006.

He said the police force had continued to be accountable to communities.

Mr Finlay said: “Policing public order is contentious (in Northern Ireland) and people are able to hold us to account for how we do that.

“Style of policing, amount of force used - people do hold us to account on that.”

However, doubts were raised at the Scottish Parliament justice committee about the ability of a single force to respond to local needs.

David McLetchie, Scottish Conservative justice spokesman, said: “At present there’s a much greater demand for community based policing. When that’s devolved to a single structure that pressure would not be there to the same extent.”

Alison Payne, research director at Reform said: “How can you take into account different communities’ needs, different scales of policing, if you remove local government’s ability to increase or decrease the policing budget?

“You are imposing on the whole country a single resource.”