Letter: Benefits of 'redesigning' police forces

From the huge set piece of the papal visit to the off-duty officer who rescued an elderly woman from her burning house last weekend, policing in Scotland is outstanding. Crime in Scotland is falling and detections are increasing. The story is of success.

Scotland now has to make some choices about its police, though. The debate goes way beyond the issue of how many forces we have.

The localism of Scottish policing is from where it derives its legitimacy, sustainability and success and policing will only work if trust and confidence in local delivery are retained.

Trust and confidence will be most affected by the process by which a decision about future structure is arrived. People across Scotland need convincing that government and police leaders can preserve the relationships between police and public that are shaped by particular local circumstances, geography and history.

They need convincing those relationships are understood. People want to be confident that in striving to get better value for money they won't find themselves policed in an unfamiliar style. I do not believe that argument has yet been won.

In my view it is crucial that our thinking is not constrained by regarding the current eight forces as the component parts of the new structure.

We need to disaggregate current forces into their constituent local authorities and use the 32 as the building blocks of the new arrangements. We need to design accountability around those building blocks and empower new relationships at local authority level to use resources more flexibly and to respond more appropriately to local need.

I am in favour of a single national force for Scotland because it will clarify and speed up decision-making, give best value, and provide consistency in policy. It will enable operational excellence in policing terrorism, serious and organised crime and other strategic functions.

We should also create new and empowered relationships between local police commanders, local authorities, local elected representatives and other partners.

We can have the best of both at the same time. Achieving this vision depends on successfully blending a range of context-specific policing approaches in a framework that is accountable and delivers outstanding service across Scotland.

This is not a debate about whether we have one or three or four police forces in Scotland. It is about how we hold our police accountable for their role in the life of the nation and how we hold them accountable for their impact in my street.The debate is about whose priorities the police follow and how they deliver excellent policing in the national emergency and the personal tragedy at the same time.

The process must be a proactive one that positively redesigns Scotland's police for a new generation, not a simple collapsing of five organisations into one.

Dpt Chief Constable Stephen Allen

Lothian and Borders Police

Fettes Avenue

Edinburgh

Is it mere coincidence that, on the very same day Joyce McMillan comments on how little has been achieved since the Scottish Parliament was created and chooses to remind us of the words of Canon Kenyon Wright that "power is like love: in the end you can only get it by giving it away and sharing it" (Comment, 7 January), you report that next month the Scottish Government will announce its intention to establish a national police force and in doing so abolish the foundations of policing in Scotland that have existed for more than 200 years.

Local policing was first founded by statute in 1771 in our city, then subsequently refined.

It was the Edinburgh Act of 1805 that established the three structural cornerstones familiar to police forces throughout the world today, namely democratic accountability, financial support from local taxation and the hierarchical system of command and control.

It is that structure and system of policing that lies at the very heart of our democracy.

A national government state police service, if established, blurs a very important democratic distinction between policing and the military.

There lies an issue; let the debate begin. Pity your fence-sitting editorial did not attempt to address it.

(Cllr) Eric Milligan

Lothian and Borders Police Board

City of Edinburgh Council

High Street

Edinburgh