Police risk becoming more farce than force

THE creation of a single Scottish police force was a money-saving exercise dressed up as an essential act of modernisation.

Police Scotland, we were assured, would be at the very cutting edge of modern law enforcement. But the early years of the national force have been marked by controversy.

From the routine deployment of armed officers on the beat to the failure to find two crash victims – one dead, the other dying – for a number of days, a series of scandals has severely damaged public confidence in the force.

Chief Constable Phil Gormley is under justifiable pressure to rebuild faith in the service. Two new scandals will not make his job any easier.

Yesterday it emerged that the body of a man missing for almost a month had been found inside his home. Police had made a number of public appeals to trace Arnold Mouat since his disappearance in July.

The discovery of his body at home will distress his family and friends and should embarrass Police Scotland.

An investigation by the police watchdog the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) must now explain how this situation was able to develop. And while the organisation proceeds with that probe, it awaits answers from the force on decisions taken not to investigate more than 40 deaths among patients of NHS Ayrshire and Arran, despite allegations made by a whistleblower.

A healthy, functioning society needs a police force that commands the respect of the general public. Police Scotland does not, currently, meet that basic requirement.