Community safety officers accused of inventing fixed penalty notices
ASCOTTISH crime prevention team is facing questions over allegations that officers created bogus fixed penalty notices to meet targets. Community Safety Glasgow (CSG) has confirmed that five community enforcement officers resigned after “discrepancies” were found in their work.
The officers have a “minimum performance standard” of issuing 300 penalty notices a year, but the public body strongly refuted any suggestion the controversy was linked to pressure to keep the numbers up.
CSG, which is jointly owned by the city council, is in charge of Glasgow’s CCTV network and plays a prominent role in combating anti-social behaviour. Its civilian patrol officers, equipped with body cameras and handheld digital devices, can issue £80 fines for offences such as littering.
According to CSG’s latest accounts, 17,773 penalty notices were issued in 2015-16, and 20,467 were handed out in the previous 12 months.
However, an insider with knowledge of CSG approached this newspaper and cast doubt on the overall numbers.
The source said some enforcement officers, in the years leading up to and including 2015, had made up false notices and recorded details into the system. The insider said: “To create a false document, you could simply choose a name from the phone book, or indeed a name and address chosen completely at random. The information would then be entered into the PDA [personal digi- tal assistant], the ticket would be printed and simply destroyed by the officer.”
The individual added that such bad practices allowed an officer to “easily meet and exceed” the target of issuing two penalty notices a day, adding: “It was in every CEO’s [community enforcement officer] interest to meet that target, and if you couldn’t spot and ticket two people for dropping litter that day then maybe it became tempting to make one up, to keep the pressure off yourself.”
The Sunday Herald understands the alleged scam was uncovered by CSG during a routine audit of fixed penalty notices in 2015. It emerged that, in relation to the five officers, the number of people who had not paid their fines was higher than average, fuelling suspicions that details on the notices were false.
After a disciplinary process was triggered, four staff quit ahead of a hearing, while the fifth employee resigned after a meeting was held. A source close to CSG said the resignations occurred in 2015 and the system had since been overhauled. Patrick Harvie, Scottish Greens MSP in Glasgow, said: “I’m shocked that this situation is only coming to light, so long after it was known to CSG. For people to have confidence in their use of these powers it’s important there’s a culture of accountability.”
Glasgow Tory MSP Annie Wells: “This is unacceptable and reinforces the perception that not enough is being done to tackle dog fouling in Glasgow. For years residents have complained about this problem, and all the while it seems that they have been lied to about what action was being taken to stop it.”
A spokesperson for Community Safety Glasgow said: “In 2015, disciplinary action was taken against five community enforcement officers after a routine audit revealed discrepancies in their work. This sparked an in-depth, root-and-branch internal investigation which led to disciplinary hearings. Regular scrutiny, coupled with a new electronic system, guards against any further incidents of this type.”