COP26: Major increase in police cell numbers to make space for arrests

Police Scotland has massively increased the number of cells available to officers in Glasgow and the surrounding area to cope with potentially high numbers of arrests during COP26.

The Scotsman can reveal Police Scotland has “maximised” their cell capacity in the city and at other custody centres across Scotland after years of shortages saw prisoners regularly driven to Ayrshire for overnight stays.

Additional work to replace old equipment and to upgrade cells to meet modern standards has also taken place in police stations ahead of the climate change conference set to begin on Monday.

Police officers walk passed the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow where Cop26 is being held.

This has included specific COP-related work to improve prisoner processing and holding cell capacity, Police Scotland confirmed.

Around 10,000 officers from across Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom will be deployed as part of the policing operation during COP26, with Police Scotland warning they will act “swiftly and robustly” to deal with protesters who engage in violent behaviour or cause damage.

Major demonstrations both around the COP26 campus at the SEC or in Glasgow and across Scotland at sites such as Grangemouth or in Edinburgh could see significant numbers of arrests.

Armed police, including potentially 1,000 trained to use guns, will be visible during the conference, with officers also given riot training in anticipation of the major demonstrations planned during the two-week conference.

Confirming the major increase in the number of cells available to officers, chief superintendent Gordon McCreadie, who is the divisional commander of the criminal justice services division of Police Scotland, said the additional cells would allow officers to “deal with arrests” during COP26.

He said: “We have maximised our cell capacity in Glasgow and at key sites throughout Scotland to ensure we can deal with arrests during COP26 should this be required

“A number of custody centres have had work carried out to existing facilities as part of ongoing maintenance and improvements to increase and enhance prisoner care and welfare, improve the working environment for staff, replace outdated existing equipment and to comply with changes to health and safety guidelines.

"There has also been event-specific work carried out at some designated custody centres, mainly to increase processing and holding cell capacity.

“An enhanced system of processing people in custody will also allow officers to return to their duties as quickly as possible. This enhanced capacity allows us to deal with both large numbers of people arrested and the routine daily demand.”

In a press conference on Friday, Police Scotland chief constable Iain Livingstone reiterated the stance that physical force would be used to remove protesters and that some demonstrators may look to be repeatedly arrested.

"It may look quite messy,” the police chief said, adding that protests must not “interfere with the progress of the conference”.

He said many protesters have had the modus operandi of testing the criminal justice system, stating that COP26 is an “extraordinary period” with “extraordinary and extra demands” for Scotland’s criminal system.

Police Scotland are also receiving at least £65.5 million from the UK Government for the policing operation, which is estimated as likely to cost around £250m in total.

Responding, Scottish Conservatives justice spokesperson Jamie Greene said COP26 posed “serious issues for our police”, which he said had seen cuts to their numbers under the SNP.

He said: “With thousands of protestors expected to be in Glasgow during the conference, including some fringe groups, local police stations face a huge strain to manage the event.

“If the disruption or danger caused by protestors forced police to act, it is hard to see where they would put such a huge volume of offenders given the lack of resources.

“Cuts to the number of police officers and stations under the SNP has left Glasgow under-resourced, and the Scottish Conservatives have been vocal in calling for an increase in police numbers through our Local Policing Act.”

Scottish Labour’s justice spokesperson Pauline McNeill said: “Across the board, Scotland’s essential services will be stretched to breaking point by COP26 and even with this enhanced capacity, we will still have fewer cells than we had due before years of underfunding Police Scotland and the closure of police stations left Glasgow with a deficit of cells.

“In normal times it would not be unusual for multiple people to be detained in a single cell during an event of this size, but due to the Covid pandemic I’d have serious concerns if that were to be the case. Ultimately this will be determined by the number of arrests made during the conference.

“First and foremost we hope there will not be the need for mass arrests, but we need to make sure the system has the capacity to safely cope with whatever lies ahead.”

The Scottish Government was contacted for comment.

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