Mental health and court failures ‘overwhelming Scottish police force’
Police Scotland is overwhelmed by the appalling demands made on officers by failing mental health services and a court system that requires complete reform, according to its chief constable, Jo Farrell.
The first woman to lead Police Scotland, the UK’s second largest force, Farrell took command last October. She inherited falling officer numbers, a stressed and demoralised workforce, under-reporting of misogyny and racism within the ranks, and public outcry over police station closures.
She has faced specific challenges such as the continuing investigation into Scottish National party finances, Operation Branchform, and implementing the Scottish government’s controversial Hate Crime Act.
Now Farrell has hit back, challenging other agencies to “step up” and allow officers to focus on core policing. “If somebody’s threatening themselves or a danger to other people, that’s absolutely where the police should be,” said Farrell. “But we are babysitting people who are not criminals, they don’t meet the threshold to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act, but we feel the need to wrap around them because there’s nobody else.”
“When people say ‘Why aren’t you doing that better, or more of that, and why haven’t we got a community officer here?’ this is some of the reason.”
A number of English forces, including the Metropolitan police, have stepped back from attending mental health calls.
Farrell said she had met chief executives of local authorities across Scotland to press her point, and highlighted court appearances as another drain on police time. Only 15% of those who attended actually gave evidence that day. She estimated that Police Scotland spent £3m of overtime last year on court appearances, while a third of officers went to court on a rest or annual leave day, affecting their work-life balance.
The problem was system-wide, said Farrell. “We’ve got a prison population that’s tipped over 8,000 [close to full capacity], we’ve got a disproportionately high number of people on remand. That says this is a system that is not working efficiently or effectively.”
Farrell said the Hate Crime Act – which prompted more than 7,000 online complaints in the first week of April, only 3.8% of which were found to be legitimate – had not damaged public trust as critics predicted. “I’ve been hugely impressed with the way in which officers and staff dealt with the high level of demand in those early weeks,” she said, adding that – with 124 online reports last week – “we’re probably at the new norm”.
“What we have seen is increases in the number of crimes against some of those new protected characteristics, which was the purpose of the legislation.” This was particularly the case for disability hate crime.
When he stepped down last summer, Farrell’s predecessor Sir Iain Livingstone defended the length of the Branchform inquiry and rejected claims of political motivation.
Given the investigation remains live, all Farrell would do was reiterate operational independence and add: “We will be submitting our report to the crown in relation to the individual who’s been charged and we’ll be doing that in a matter of weeks.”
Farrell was speaking to the media on Friday, as it emerged that a former Police Scotland officer, Gemma MacRae, who was sexually assaulted by a colleague and in 2018 complained about bullying and misogyny at a Moray station, had accepted a payout from the force of £431,968.
Farrell said she was optimistic that people were now more confident in reporting misconduct by colleagues, but was “not in any doubt there’s work to be done”.
‘We are babysitting people who are not criminals or sectioned because there’s nobody else’
Jo Farrell Police Scotland chief