Scotland's police forces 'should be aligned with councils'

3 Jun 11
A prominent think-tank called today for a substantial increase in the number of police forces in Scotland, despite a growing consensus that the present eight forces should be cut to as few as one
By Keith Aitken in Edinburgh | 3 June 2011

A prominent think-tank called today for a substantial increase in the number of police forces in Scotland, despite a growing consensus that the present eight forces should be cut to as few as one.

The Right-of-centre Reform Scotland claimed that policing would be more accountable and relevant if the force boundaries were aligned with Scotland’s unitary local authorities, currently 32 in number.

‘While some may argue that 32 police forces seems too many, that is more a question of the number of councils in Scotland,’ the report, Striking the balance, argued. ‘The key feature is that this recommendation would provide local accountability.’

Reform Scotland also wants power devolved to area commanders within the forces, drawing on New York City’s strategy of shifting responsibility to precinct captains: ‘As with all public services, increasing diversity can raise standards for all. Imposing a one-size-fits-all structure from the centre will stifle that innovation.’

The present configuration of eight forces, mostly overseen by joint local authority boards, was inherited from the old regional council structure, abolished in 1995. Only two of the forces correspond to current council boundaries while one, Strathclyde, covers almost half the Scottish population.

Reform Scotland’s plans fly in the face of Scottish government thinking, which is that more cost-effective policing can be achieved by amalgamating the eight forces into no more than three, and possibly just one, national force. Labour also backed a national force at the Scottish Parliament elections, and the Tories too advocated mergers.

But the think-tank maintains that small municipal forces work well in other countries – Spain has 1,800, Belgium 196 – and it questions the financial savings to be gained from mergers. ‘There is no particular reason to believe that one police force would deliver cost savings from economies of scale,’ it says.  

‘While it may be possible to save some chief constable salaries, it is just as likely that additional and more complex management structures would be required. Administration efficiencies may be possible, but these could also be achieved by sharing services and do not require the creation of a single force.’

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