So could police take off icers off the beat ...for Gaelic lessons?
POLICE Scotland is planning to hire more Gaelicspeaking officers – and may even take officers off the front line to learn the language.
Scotland’s beleaguered police force is closing stations across the country and facing a string of scandals.
But it has found time to draw up a 33-page plan to accommodate a language used by fewer than 2 per cent of the population.
In the widely criticised new recruitment policy, the force plans to ‘increase the number of Gaelic users within the organisation’, recognising being able to speak the language as a ‘desirable job skill’.
If the plan is approved, existing employees will also be encouraged to undergo training in Gaelic.
Police Scotland has not yet ruled out that officers may be taken off frontline duties fighting crime to do this.
The single force has refused to say how much the plan could cost, stating it will be ‘minimal’. However in the long-term, every uniform, police car and station sign should be in Gaelic as well as English, to demonstrate ‘equal respect’ for both languages.
The force said this would not be expensive, as there would be a rolling programme to gradually replace all signs and equipment. However it has admitted the cost of translating one 2013 power structure document alone was almost £1,300.
The cost of the new plan is likely to rocket, if implemented, with bosses slapping the Poileas Alba logo across signs, letterheads and business cards.
Last night, Conservative justice spokesman Margaret Mitchell said: ‘This is exactly the kind of thing that makes Scotland’s once proud justice system look like a laughing stock. The single force is a shambles just now and a Gaelic recruitment campaign is not going to address that.’
Police Scotland faced ridicule last month when, after axing hundreds of civilian jobs, the cash-strapped force spent taxpayers’ money on Gaelic livery for its helicopter, branded a ‘vanity project paint-job’ by critics.
The force’s chief constable, Sir Stephen House, i s behind the Gaelic plan. He has recently been forced to step down by a series of disasters, including the death of Lamara Bell, who lay in the wreck- age of a car for three days beside her dead boyfriend because a report of the crash was not recorded in the call system.
Sir Stephen, who leaves in December, is also facing questions over the death of Sheku Bayoh in custody, and Police Scotland’s failure to follow up a sighting of a missing pensioner with dementia, who was later found dead.
Chief Superintendent Julian Innes, who is leading the project, said: ‘As a public body, Police Scotland has a legal obligation to develop a Gaelic Language Plan and we will do that in consultation with the communities we serve and the organisations who work with us.’
Liberal Democrat justice spokesman Alison McInnes said: ‘Gaelic is an important part of Scotland’s heritage but at a time when budgets are under pressure, there are real questions over whether this is the best possible use of police resources.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We welcome Police Scotland’s proposals for a Gaelic Language Plan. Plans such as these underline the value of Gaelic in Scottish public life and strengthen efforts to support Gaelic.’
‘The force is a shambles just now’