Police numbers fall to nine-year low.

LAW: Tories say latest figures are ‘disappointing’ after policy was dropped

Police officer numbers in Scotland have fallen to their lowest level in nine years.

The constable count has dropped below the Scottish Government minimum, a policy dumped by the SNP in 2016.

In the first three months of this year, Police Scotland had the equivalent of 17,170 full-time officers, according to official statistics published yesterday.

The last time it was lower was in the same period in 2009, when the total was 17,048.

The Scottish Conservatives said it is “massively disappointing” the numbers have dropped below the level guaranteed by the SNP between 2007 and 2016.

Tory MSP Liam Kerr said: “The reason the Scottish Conservatives helped secure this pledge was to ensure a greater police presence in our communities and to help tackle crime.

“The SNP have demonstrated time and again that their priorities lie elsewhere and have chosen to stick many of our policemen and women in back office roles.”

Alex Salmond’s administration pledged officer numbers would be 1,000 higher than at the point they came to power, which amounts to 17,234.

The 2016 manifesto said the “nature of crime is changing” and more nonofficer roles such as cyber-crime specialists are required.

The Scottish Government has repeatedly denied back-filling takes place, a practice that protects officer numbers through giving them backoffice roles.

Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said it is about providing the right balance of civilian and support staff to frontline officers.

“Today’s figures confirm this plan is taking effect and they have signalled that a number of officers have been freed up from back-office roles to ensure the frontline is maintained and enhanced, as outlined in the strategy,” he said.

Meanwhile, politicians reacted to a BBC documentary aired on Monday night, which alleged that negative parts of an internal report from 2014 into unlawful and bad police practices were suppressed.

Mr Matheson faced demands to order a review into apparent senior leadership interference in the report, early drafts of which referred to unauthorised surveillance and witness intimidation.

The justice secretary said the Scottish Police Authority would look into it.

Earlier, a Holyrood committee was told the cost of merging the British Transport Police in Scotland into the national force is still not known.

“A number of officers have been freed up from back-office roles to ensure the frontline is maintained

Picture: Kris Miller. Police officer numbers have come down to their lowest number since 2009.