Police stretched as frontline takes hit

The chronic removal of frontline police officers to tackle acute challenges in specialist areas is stretching the Scottish service on a local level, a senior officer has told MSPS.

Chief Superintendent Ivor Marshall said a “lack of clarity” probably existed about where resources needed to be.

He was giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee yesterday as it starts an examination of the creation of Scotland’s single police and fire services more than five years on.

Mr Marshall said: “The most obvious place where it all trickles down and comes from is from the frontline, operational uniform resources, because you always tend to take people away from there.

“The question is [with] that chronic removal over time, which is drip, drip, drip, because you’re addressing acute issues, what’s happening there?”