Watch: Inside Scotland's police force as drone footage shows officers facing 'relentless' job

Relentless was commissioned by the Scottish Police Federation

A female police officer is standing on the roof of a building, fear evident in her eyes as a young man stands on the edge.

“Just look at me,” she begs. “Stay where you are and let’s talk for a second.”

Drone footage swoops the viewer down to police dealing with a fight on a landing, then to a woman lying in the entrance hall of her home in the same block of flats as another officer bends over her, calling for an ambulance.

“Young female, no signs of life,” the officer says into a radio, as a little girl, clutching a teddy bear, is comforted by a third policeman on the stairs outside the flat. “Suspected drug overdose.”

Another swoop and two male officers are hammering on the door of another property in the same block, where loud music is being played. As they open the door, a man slowly turns towards them, clutching a large machete.

As the film ends, the police officer from the first scene has been successful in persuading the man not to jump. As she leads him to another waiting car to be escorted to hospital, the relief clear on her face, her radio buzzes, calling for back-up.

An officer has been stabbed.

This is Relentless, a new short film commissioned by the Scottish Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, to highlight the realities of policing.

Filmed in a residential block of flats in Glasgow, the actors playing the parts of police officers were advised by real-life officers who volunteered to share their stories with the filmmakers.

For Glasgow-based police officer PC Mark Richardson, the film is very close to home. He was one of three police officers chosen as inspiration for the director Sam Taylor.

An actor playing a police officer in Scottish Police federation film Relentless. | ryanjohnstonco / Ryan Johnston

He recalls one single shift - his last day on community policing before he moved to another department - that involved two attempted suicides, two missing person situations and a young boy who had been hit by a car after running away from home, interspersed with a string of more mundane call-outs.

“It showed that non stop reality that you can get,” he says of the film. “When the cop at the end is just thinking ‘that's that done’, then another call comes in. That can happen so often.”

He says the fear portrayed by the actors in the film mirrors reality.

“I had one occasion where a guy pulled a blow torch on me when I was walking down the street on patrol,” PC Richardson says. “He saw two cops and tried to flame us. You never know what you are going to come across. When you put the uniform on, you’re definitely putting a target on your back.”

An actor playing a police officer comforts a bereaved child. | ryanjohnstonco / Ryan Johnston

David Kennedy, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, which commissioned the film, said he wanted to shine a light on the everyday realities and challenges faced by police officers in Scotland.

“That sense of fear is absolutely real,” he says. “When you open that door, you don’t know what’s round the corner or what you’re going to be faced with.

“We wanted to show that they’re just normal people. They’re not robocops, they’re not an elite group of individuals bred somewhere. They’re just normal people trying to do a good job.

“This film wasn’t about things we made up, these were real-life scenarios. We were trying to convey what it’s like for cops on shift.

“They don’t stop from the moment they start to the moment they finish, it’s just relentless, so that was the only word we thought summed it up.”

The film is to be shown to politicians, councillors and voters in hope of placing policing at the forefront of debate during next year’s Holyrood election campaign.

The number of police officers in Scotland is still below the number of officers in 2008, despite a rise in Scotland's population to 5.5 million - the highest on record.

PC Claire Taylor was also interviewed by filmmakers about her 22-year career in Police Scotland.

She says: “The worst time is when somebody dies that you’ve tried to save. A few months ago a child passed away. I had been doing CPR for 45 minutes, but it was unsuccessful.

“These are the moments when it just is really traumatic, no matter how resilient you are, or how experienced. Officers are really affected by these desperately sad events. You go over and over it in your mind, you don’t forget.”

PC Taylor has never sought a desk job, preferring to take a hands-on approach as a frontline officer. She says most call-outs she attends involve drugs, alcohol or mental health issues.

Police Scotland recorded 6,702 assaults on officers and staff in 2023/24, with 1,675 suffering injuries and 212 needing hospital treatment.

“I’ve had people try to attack me with various weapons, but I’ve managed to avoid serious injury,” she says, recalling a threat from a man who had taken drugs, who was running into traffic on a motorway, wielding a knife.

“In the chaos, he tried to stab me and my colleague. We both managed to get out of the way.

“You are in such a state of high alert and adrenaline that you almost don’t notice until your shift finishes. Then you’ve got to be normal when you go home to your family and just be a mum.”

PC Craig Purdon, who also told filmmakers about various incidents during his five-year career in Police Scotland - including one where he was called to a woman standing on the wrong side of a motorway bridge, planning to jump - says he believes the public perception of the police has changed for the worse.

“Influences from America have a huge impact on the relationship with police in the UK, despite policing differently,” he says. “Social media affects the relationship between the public and police, TikTok trends, charts songs singing about killing the police etc.

“In Scotland, specifically Glasgow, there is hostility to the police. We want to show that we are here to help.”