Outlook for Police Scotland ‘bleak’ as officer numbers cut, SNP conference told

The Scottish Police Federation said crime is only falling because people no longer report it

The outlook for Police Scotland is "pretty bleak" amid a "catastrophic" cut in officer numbers, the general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation has said.

David Kennedy told a fringe event at the SNP’s conference in Aberdeen on Tuesday that crime is only falling because people are no longer reporting it. He said a pilot project in the north east, in which some minor crimes will no longer be investigated, was "devastating for the public" and "horrendous".

Mr Kennedy said the number of police officers in Scotland would drop to less than 16,000 by April – down from just under 17,500 in 2013 – as staff retire and are not replaced by new recruits. "That’s dramatic,” he said. “That's police officers that we need on the streets."

There are concerns over a fall in police officer numbers in Scotland

He told the event: "When the SNP was elected to the Scottish Government in 2007, we had 16,267 police officers, and after two years that increased to 17,273, which was very good.

"The highest number we ever got to in 2013 was just under 17,500, which was 17,496. What's happened over the last year-and-a-half is we have had a cut in those numbers – quite a catastrophic cut in those numbers."

Mr Kennedy said more and more pressure had been put on the service in recent years.

Police Scotland previously said the pilot in the north east “will enable local police officers to focus on those crimes that have proportionate lines of inquiry and potentially enable them to give more time to local concerns and priorities in the area”.

But Mr Kennedy strongly criticised the scheme. “We need the police to be going to calls when you phone them up,” he said. “We need the police officers to attend.”

Elsewhere, he said: "They say crime is down. Crime is down because people aren't reporting it. That's the truth."

He was taking part in a panel with Audrey Nicoll, an SNP MSP and former police officer who is the convener of the Scottish Parliament’s criminal justice committee.

She said: "There is no getting away from the fact that the outlook is extremely challenging."