Police bosses deny plans tocutupto 1,200 officers

The Scottish Police Authority has denied plans are being drawn up to cut as many as 1,200 officers.

A report presented to the board yesterday outlined three scenarios for creating “officer capacity” by 2021 by reducing numbers by either 650 officers, 852 or 1,176.

Details emerged the day after new figures showed officer numbers have dropped to their lowest level since 2009.

Scottish Labour’s justice spokesman, Daniel Johnson, said the SNP’S promise to maintain officer numbers had been “shattered”.

He said: “The public will rightly be concerned that the Scottish Police Authority is now looking at cutting hundreds, if not more than a thousand, officers.”

But addressing the SPA board in Stirling, interim chief officer Kenneth Hogg said the figures were a “metric to explain and make meaningful what more capacity could look like”.

He said: “That measurement does not directly equate to planned reductions in officer numbers.”