Poll sees calls for tougher policing

More than a quarter of Scots want the police to take tougher action to impose coronavirus lockdown restrictions, a new poll has suggested.

Research carried out for watchdogs at the Scottish Police Authority found almost half of those surveyed (46%) “fully supported” the approach taken by Police Scotland.

But 28% agreed officers “should take tougher action to ensure public compliance” with the restrictions, which have been in place for more than six weeks.

In contrast, 2% of Scots said the lockdown policing was “too heavy handed”, although 17% said while they supported the approach, the police were “going too far” in some cases.

Almost three-fifths of Scots (59%) said they would be comfortable with roadblocks being used by police to ask motorists to justify their journeys, while 33% took this stance on using drones or unmanned aircraft to photograph people making “unessential journeys”.

Meanwhile, 32% backed police analysing social media accounts – such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook

– to identify those breaching the lockdown.

And almost a quarter (22%) were comfortable with the “naming and shaming on social media” of those breaching the restrictions.

Overall, the survey found that almost a fifth (17%) of Scots believe the police in their area are doing an excellent job, with 32% describing local police performance as “good” and a further 17% saying this was “fair”.

Just 6% said they believed police in their area were performing poorly, with 2% describing this as “very poor”, while 27% said they did not know.

SPA vice-chairman David Crichton said: “Listening to and understanding the views of the wider public are a key part of good governance and that is why the authority took steps to commission a representative sample of public views – an initiative we will be repeating twice more in the coming weeks to track the public mood.”

He added: “We are publishing the key survey findings today to provide a baseline and there will be an opportunity to review and analyse the detail in the coming weeks alongside other evidence.