100 officers deployed at polling stations
More than 100 police officers will be deployed to ensure public safety during today’s European elections with a senior officer claiming the situation is now “fundamentally different” from in the past.
Deputy Chief Cons table Will Kerr told a meeting of the Scottish Police Authority( SPA) that following Brexit, the “tone” had changed.
His comments came as it emerged Police Scotland is spending more than £300,000 a week on extra officers who have been taken on to help the force prepare for Britain’s EU withdrawal.
Speaking in Edinburgh
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yesterday, Mr Kerr said: “Tomorrow, during the European elections, we’ve had to stand up four Police Support Units, that’s over 100 cops.
“We would have never normally done that in the past. We would never normally have needed that level of support, particularly for European elections. We do now - the tone is just fundamentally different.”
There are some 4,700 polling stations across Scotland that the force has to police during voting hours.
Meanwhile, Chief Consta - ble Iain Livingstone said the decision to leave the European Union had put an“unprecedented and unforeseen cost pressure on policing”.
With the UK originally due to leave the Euro - pean Union on 29 March, the chief con stable said previously announced plans to reduce operational numbers within the force by 300 were being scrapped.
He told the SPA that at the time he had been “very aware of my responsibilities to the public purse and the adverse impact that these decisions would have on our ongoing budget deficit”. Confirming an additional 90 officers had been taken on, Mr Livingstone said: “The impact is significant, it is in excess of £300,000 a week.”
He added :“I made those operational decisions based on assessment of the risks to citizens and communities in Scotland, which in my view were directly attributable to the uncertainty associated with the UK exit from the EU and I am still of the view that the decisions remain necessary and proportion.”