Bearing brunt of cuts to services

YOUR house is on fire, you call 999 only to be told the fire brigade are unable to attend as they are policing a football match.

That crude analogy is exactly the situation facing many of those who try to make use of a police service that has become hamstrung, overloaded and incapable of delivering.

Please be in no doubt that Police Scotland is struggling to fill the gap created by challenges in the health sector and the current police response.

Let me be clear, the problem is not the police but the overreliance upon the police service as a de facto mental health and crisis care provider.

The police will always attend emergency calls, it is our core role, but someone who needs medical intervention should be dealt with timeously by the appropriate medical professional.

At the moment, the “handover” piece between untrained police officers and specialist health care professionals is broken and, in some cases, non-existent.

The consequence is detrimental to the ability of the police to carry out basic policing functions.

When Jo Farrell was appointed as Chief Constable in October 2023, she said “officers must spend less time on mental health calls and must focus intensely on our core duties and what matters to the people we serve”.

A great deal of partnership work is being led by Police Scotland to address what everyone acknowledges is an unsustainable policing model, however, the reality is of a worsening situation in respect of the police servicing demand that cannot be met by the health sector.

Selfishly, from a police perspective, I would ask what is the incentive for health to change current processes.

Health boards across Scotland are subject of incredible budgetary and staffing pressures, so why would they change their processes for a situation that will only lead to increased demand on them if the police stop providing that “insurance policy”?

It’s a question I’ve never had a satisfactory answer to but one that needs to be addressed if meaningful change is to occur within policing.

Our communities, and the officers charged with delivering policing across Scotland, deserve nothing less.