Analysis Chris Marshall

Rarely does a week go by without a controversy involving Scotland’s national police force.

Since its creation in 2013, Police Scotland has faced criticism over stop-search, the deployment of armed officers and the performance of its control rooms.

Its nadir was undoubtedly the deaths of Lamara Bell, 25, and John Yuill, 28, who died after their car crashed on the M9 near Stirling in July 2015.

Ms Bell lay trapped in the vehicle for three days after the force failed to log a call from a member of the public.

Much of the criticism Police Scotland has received during its troubled infancy was inevitable. The merger of eight regional forces to create a unified structure means the national force receives the sort of political and media scrutiny that arguably only the Metropolitan Police can beat.

That’s not to say some of that criticism has not been