Police report pretends ‘all well when it’s not’
SCOTLAND’S police watchdog has been criticised by opposition parties for producing an annual review of the force’s performance that “pretends all is well when it clearly isn’t”.
In its 2016/17 assessment, the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) noted Police Scotland continues to provide “a high-quality” service across the country, with crime rates falling in most categories.
The review also found oversight of policing had been strengthened by the SPA board, which has “enhanced its skills and experience in key areas such as finance, audit and ICT, and reinforced its grip of the police budget and oversight of key change programmes like call handling”.
However, the Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Conservatives said the report failed to address problems within both organisations.
The SPA has been fiercely criticised over the past few months amid concerns over transparency and governance.
The intense scrutiny resulted in the resignation of its chair Andrew Flanagan last week.
Meanwhile, Police Scotland and the SPA have also come un- der fire over weak financial leadership, a multi-million pound budget deficit and the failure of a £46million IT system.
Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesman Liam McArthur said the report was a “disservice” to police officers that “pretends that all is well when it clearly isn’t”.
Scottish Conservative MP Douglas Ross said: “For the SPA to praise policing in Scotland and give themselves a slap on the back at the same time is staggering.
“There are clearly problems within Police Scotland at present and pretending they don’t exist will not help address any them.”
The review found the force dealt with 2.6 million calls during the year, up 1.1% on the previous year, and recorded 1.6 million incidents, the review states.
There was a 2.4% decrease in recorded crime while the force saw a 0.6% decrease in overall violent crime.
But there was a 5.2% increase in some non-sexual violent crimes, driven by increases in serious assaults, robberies, threats and extortion, while sexual crime also rose by 5.2%.
Some progress has already been made to address the increases while action has also been taken to tackle under-reporting, the review found.
Elsewhere, it noted local policing is “continuously improving”, with feedback from local authority scrutiny bodies that community interests are being taken into account.
Mr Flanagan said: “SPA has assessed that Police Scotland met its annual objectives and continued to deliver a service to a high quality and consistency.”
Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said: “This report recognises the hard work of the entire policing workforce to deliver a high-quality service to communities. Crime is reducing in most categories and public confidence remains strong.”