COPS WON’T REVEAL VITAL DRUG DEATH STATS
Horrific extent of crisis hidden as police cite ‘duty of care’
POLICEOLICE hahave been slammed for blocking vital information about the horrific extent of Scotland’s drug deaths crisis.
Despite admitting it holds details of every suspected drug death for 2019, Police Scotland has refused to release the information, saying it has a “duty of care” to the family of loved ones to avoid “speculation”.
But the same force released details of suspected deaths – which contain no specific data on individuals – to the Record for the past two years.
We splashed the revelations on the front page of our paper, reflecting how the crisis was out of control. When the
Record pointed this out to the force, they stuck to their guns and refused to give out the data, claiming the previous releases were was a “mistake”.
The refusal comes despite it being widely expected that the numbers for 2019, which are running five months late, will be even worse than 2018. Those were a new record and the worst recorded in the world.
Labour MSP Neil Findlay said: “Scotland has the worst rate of drugs deaths in the developed world and here we have our police force withholding vital information on this crisis.
“This cannot be allowed to stand – the information commissioner must intervene to force Police Scotland to release this information.”
In July this year, Superintendent Tim Ross told the Record that numbers of deaths had appeared to slow during coronavirus then picked up to be ahead of the rate for the same period in 2019.
Campaigners have accused the force of acting in tow with the Scottish Government to suppress the bad news until
December. Statistics are already delayed due to a Crown Office funding row over toxicology testing at Glasgow University.
Annemarie Ward, of the addiction charity FAVOR UK, said it gave the appearance that police were bowing to political pressure to keep the figures under wraps. She added: “This is yet another catastrophic failure of Scotland’s leadership in this area.”
The Record’s requested data on “suspected drug deaths” for Scotland for the year 2019 and for the first half of 2020. We also asked for any breakdown available for different policing areas – information that has been released in previous years.
The force’s Information Disclosure Officer refused to give the data, saying: “Police Scotland has a duty of care to the family and friends of a deceased individual and we would not therefore wish to contribute to speculation as regards the cause of death of their loved ones.”
On the previous release of statistics, the force said: “Procedures have been put in place to ensure this does not occur again in the future.”