Severe police cuts mean officers go to charity shops to get kit
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According to the Scottish Police Federation (SPF), the “brutal reality” of the pressures on the force also means that dog handlers following trails are instructed to stop their search at the end of their shift so they don’t have to be paid overtime.
Instead of the handlers pursing their search to its conclusion, they are replaced by other officers who take over.
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Hide Ad“General and criminal inquiries are passed from officer to officer, grossly diminishing the care for victims and increasing the likelihood of mistakes being made, evidence being lost and greater costs and abstractions should the issue subsequently progress to court,” said Calum Steele, General Secretary of the SPF.
Mr Steele described the “dire financial straits” facing the force in an article titled “Budget Cuts” posted on the SPF website.
In his article, Mr Steele described how officers were sent to charity shops to buy car sun blinds to protect a child from “needless intrusion” when the youngster needed to be given a lift in a police vehicle.
“Any one of us who has children know these can readily be brought for a couple of pounds but the officers were sent to scour charity shops to see if they could source them cheaper,” Mr Steele wrote.
He claimed senior officers, the Scottish Police Authority and the Scottish Government were “happily kidding on” that everything “in the garden is rosy” when the force faces cuts.
“Cash is king and woe betide anyone who isn’t playing their part in making cuts. Theorising on paper that the service will be improved by cutting is a fool’s errand and the public is being misled over the policing realities of today...Imagine therefore a police service that is being strangled of the very capability to do what the public expects and what police officers know needs done and you are now imagining the PSOS (Police Service of Scotland) today, here and now.”
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