Counter Corruption Unit to be renamed
superintendent at 8.30am on Monday. “An incident such as this which results in police officers receiving serious injuries while carrying out their duty, reverberates around the organisation.
“I’m satisfied that the investigation is well resourced and the tactics utilised by the investigators, including media engagement, are appropriate. The actions of investigators are consistent with recent similar inquiries where members of the public were the victims. At this time, I can assure members of the SPA and the wider public that the provision of accurate information in the public domain was timely and in no way compromised public safety.”
Mr Livingstone also made reference to the recent convictions of those responsible for the murders of Surjit Singh Chhokar and Paige Doherty as well statistics showing the number of homicides at its lowest level since 1976.
He said: “What we’ve been able to do with the creation of Police Scotland is create Major Investigation Teams (MITS) and their prime function and role is to investigate murders andsuspiciousdeaths.wecan now bring a high quality and standardised approach to every investigation. Our departments (before Police Scotland) were filled with very skilled officers, but our structures were not fit for purpose.” Police Scotland’s controversial Counter Corruption Unit, which was involved in a journalism spying row, is to be overhauled and renamed the “Anti-corruption Unit”.
The national force was ordered to pay £10,000 in damages to a former officer earlier this year after it emerged the CCU had acted unlawfully to obtain communications data.
It followed the leaking of information to the media from the investigation into the murder of sex worker Emma Caldwell in 2005.
Appearing before the Scottish Police Authority yesterday, Deputy Chief Constable Johnny Gwynne said the streamlined unit would be “refocused, restructured and renamed”.
Mr Gwynne said there was a “real threat” from corruption.
He said: “The new Anti-corruption Unit is not just a re-branding: the change of name supports the refocusing and restructuring of the department and must not be viewed in isolation.”