Policing Scotland by Daniel Donnelly Kenneth Scott

Author:Daniel Donnelly, Kenneth Scott [Daniel Donnelly, Kenneth Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Criminology
ISBN: 9781134041794
Google: JchARtSOOA4C
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-05-13T05:47:16+00:00

Local delivery of service

The Scottish Police Service is committed to delivering local policing plans with services that meet the community's requirements. These services are monitored and evaluated at the force level by regularly consulting internal and external customers, such as MPs, MSPs and local politicians, community members and the police themselves, to identify community needs, expectations and priorities and to measure police performance. Subsequent results update and improve policy, strategy and the allocation of resources to provide a balanced approach to meeting present and future needs. The pragmatic delivery of services is achieved through each force's chain of command from chief constable downwards to either area or basic command units, or divisions and sub-divisions, each with a chief superintendent or superintendent in charge. Management of local policing can be further devolved to smaller command units working out of local police offices.

The Scottish chief constables are responsible for all aspects of police operations and will set out the way their individual forces intend to meet statutory requirements. In addition, as a 24 hour a day, 365 days a year, open-ended emergency service, which can be called to a variety of incidents ranging from major disasters and firearms incidents to domestic disputes, the role of the Scottish Police Service is much wider than mere law enforcement. Even if the nature of the crisis is unclear, it is often the case that the police are summoned anyway (Stephens 1994: 237–251). A non-exhaustive list of services which the Scottish police forces offer both to meet their statutory responsibilities and to satisfy local policing plans is given in Table 7.3.

In delivering these services to the public, Scottish police forces have several difficulties to surmount over which they have little influence. These difficulties centre primarily on the limited resources available to each of the eight forces and the various constraints that restrict the flexibility with which they can utilise them. One example is the long-running debate on police time spent at court, which highlights the limited sway the police service has over such an issue. A survey in Lothian and Borders force revealed that out of a monthly average of 1,077 police witnesses attending court, only 152 (14%) were called to give evidence (Lothian and Borders Police 2004). The Scottish Executive, police and courts administration are continually searching for a solution to this perennial problem. A further example relates to the traditional administrative burden of fines recovery carried out by the police. HMCICS estimates that police involvement

Table 7.3 Scottish Police services

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