Police forces shrink even further as SNP’s manifesto promise on resources is cast aside

Politicians generally avoid being precise in their pre-election manifestos, not least as they fear being held to them should they win.

Not so the SNP which could not have been clearer before the Scottish Government elections.

“We will protect the police resource budget in real terms for the entirety of the next parliament,” they said.

Fast forward a year. That promise has served its purpose and is in the bin.

Police officers are more than used to dealing with people who are economical with the truth – they just don’t expect it from their government.

Some promises, it seems, are more equal than others.

The message from government is clear: The public sector must reform; it must make more use of technology; it must have a “smarter” estate; and ultimately must shrink to prepandemic levels if anyone is to have any hope of a meaningful pay rise in the next few years.

Except all these things have already happened with the police service. And they have happened under this government.

This was the government that created Police Scotland, that cut millions from its budget, that forced the closure of hundreds of police stations, and which is presiding over a rise in violent crime as officers leave in their droves.

On the plus side, it is now able to boast the rollout of technology to officers that other forces have had for decades, and we have a handful of electric cars that make for a lovely photo opportunity.

It is hard to avoid the whiff of hypocrisy hanging over a Scottish Government that has spent a decade decrying the approach to policing and justice south of the border, only to now steal the same clothes.

As of today, Scotland would need approximately 650 more officers to return to prepandemic levels.

Headcount alone represents 87% of the police revenue budget. That remaining 13% is what just about manages to keep the show on the road.

Police officers are the default out-of-hours service for mental health emergencies.

They are all too often acting as paramedics and ambulance drivers. They are the de-facto out-of-hours social work service.

We have already seen other parts of the public sector retrench to core functions in recent years. Any notion they won’t do the same as belts tighten is an utter fallacy.

The net effect therefore will be an even further diminished police service, fewer police officers, stations, and cars, doing more of the work of others and less of their own. Our communities are already not phoning the police as no one comes; that is about to get a whole lot worse.

No one is saying government faced easy choices. It’s a pity it hasn’t thought more about the consequence of the ones it has made.