the pearson review of policing in scotland

7/24/2019 The Pearson Review of Policing in Scotland

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The Pearson Review of

Policing in ScotlandNovember 2015


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Background to the Review

Scottish Labour backed a single police force because we believed thatcommunities across Scotland could be better served and that all peopleshould have access to specialised officers and support. However, we didnot believe that should be at the expense of local policing. We raisedmany concerns about the way the Scottish Government were changingstructures and failing to ensure effective relationships between Police

Scotland and the body set up to scrutinise it, the Scottish PoliceAuthority (SPA).

As a result, there was already a need to examine the effectiveness ofthe structures and relationships of the single force. However, there havebeen a series of clear failures with the structure, hierarchy and Executiveof Police Scotland which demanded a swift look at the issues involved.

That is why the Scottish Labour Party instigated this Review, and taskedScottish Labours Justice Spokesperson, Graeme Pearson MSP, to lead

it.

Graeme joined City of Glasgow Police at the age of 19, and was in thePolice Service for 38 years. He rose to the rank of Deputy ChiefConstable of Strathclyde Police and then on to become Director Generalof the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA).

After leaving SCDEA, he became an Honorary Professor and Head ofthe University of Glasgows Institute for the Study of Serious Organised

Crime.


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Executive Summary

Announced on 31stAugust, the aim of the review was to assess the effectiveness ofthe single police force and propose reforms to restore local accountability andreverse the impact of damaging cuts to staff and services.

The review looked at:

Local accountability

Practical policing

The relationship between Police Scotland, the Scottish Police Authority (SPA)and Scottish Government ministers

Staffing and targets

As part of the review I wanted to speak to the public, rank and file officers, civilianstaff, community groups, victim support staff and others. I am grateful to report that

without exception contributions were made in a constructive and positive manner

Scottish Labour proposed a community focussed single service police andfirefighting capability in 2011, but the SNP government subsequently engineeredsomething very wrong in terms of its implementation. In spite of recommendations tothe contrary and significant motions from Scottish Labour to provide a balancedapproach to reforms the Scottish Government used their majority to deliver acentralised agenda. The quango appointments to the Scottish Police AuthorityBoard apparently acquiesced to the demands from The Scottish Government and itssingle minded chief constable to deliver budget cuts, redundancies and a policy ofinappropriate target setting demanded by the Cabinet Secretary.

That is why policing in Scotland needs a shake-up and this review is not an exercisein kicking the issue into the long grass. We need to get back to the kind ofcommunity policing that made Scotland the envy of the world at one time.

Police Officers and staff need more management support, and the structures ofgovernance and accountability need to be improved. The reports recommendationsare as follows:

Improve Parliamentary oversight - The Scottish Parliament shouldconvene a committee of the Parliament to oversee the national emergency

services of police, fire and rescue, ambulance and coast guard in the contextof the national infrastructure arrangements and preparedness foremergencies.

Ensure resources meet local needs - A resource audit must now beconducted across the country to identify accurately the staff and resourceallocation for each 'community', whether that be at local authority or policedivisional levels, as decided by local committees.

Ensure a properly balanced force - The Chief Constable with theagreement of the SPA should determine the balance of the force required; to

ensure the most effective police force possible.


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Build a link between local committees and theSPA - Convenors oflocal committees should be given a right of audience at the Scottish PoliceAuthority board meetings regarding issues that are beyond resolution at thelocal level.

Enable better local oversight- All members of local committees shouldbe trained so that they can properly hold Police Scotland to account. Thereshould be a formal recognition that the primary purpose of local committees isto hold divisional commanders to account on the issues that are important tothose committees.

Share best practice and concerns- There should be a recognised voicefor deputy and assistant chief constables in the gathering of information interms of policy. With the end of Association of Chief Police Officers inScotland (ACPOS), no recognised forum is currently available to capturethose views.

A more robust SPA - The SPA must adapt its role in order to scrutinisegenuine governance in order to ensure high levels of public accountability forpolice activities and budgets. The Chair of the SPA should therefore be madeconfirmable by a vote of the whole parliament.

Urgently review IT infrastructure- There is an urgent need for an activereview of IT strategy and IT deliverables. Given that accurate information andintelligence is vital to policing the absence of a dependable end-to-end IT

provision is a risk too far in this modern age. We can buy products across theworld from Amazon and eBay more easily than police can access their owndatabases across Scotland.

Clear complaint handling - The Police Investigation and ReviewCommissioner (PIRC) should be given the sole responsibility for the conductof investigations alleging misconduct and criminality affecting the service. Allcases should be referred to PIRC who can refer back to Police Scotland whatthey assess as low level complaints.

Learn from the past: a full business case iscrucial- There should be

an acknowledgement from the Scottish Government and the SPA that theabsence of a full business case before the commencement of Police Scotlandhas created significant problems when taking forward a reform of thismagnitude.

I am grateful to all those who contributed to this review, in particular those whotravelled some distance to the meetings that I conducted across the country. I wouldalso like to thank those who telephoned, emailed, wrote to me and told me in persontheir views and recommendations. This report captures as fairly as I could theevidenced views expressed during this process.

Given the urgency and scale of this issue, I am also grateful to John McKenzie,Gemma Cheek, Peter Speirs and Paul McKay who have worked diligently to produce


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this review quickly. Much of the work to produce this review has relied on their goodwill.

I also would like to make special mention of the support from Unison who made ourschedule of public meetings possible.

Graeme Pearson MSPScottish Labours Justice Spokesperson


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The Review Process

Engagement with the public

Between Thursday 10th September and Thursday 1stOctober, I held seven publicmeetings in locations around the country. Our schedule took in Dundee; Inverness;Dumfries; Glasgow; Aberdeen; Kilmarnock and Edinburgh.

For those unable to attend public meetings we had a dedicated email address andwebpage to take written submissions to the review; and we held a Facebook Q&A.Correspondence was also received within my parliamentary office - by email,telephone and post.

I was also able to meet, and to speak with, a number of individuals who wereuncomfortable about attending the public meetings.

Meetings with Organisations

Calum Steele, General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation

George McIrvine, Secretary of UNISON Police Staff Scotland branch

Chief Superintendent Niven Rennie, President of the Association of ScottishPolice Superintendents

John Wood, Policy Manager, COSLA

Kate Frame, PIRC

Superintendent Gavin Phillip, Local Government and Parliamentary LiaisonOfficer for Police Scotland.


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The Pearson Review of Policing in Scotland

We need the Police, like we need watercontributor to the Review

The people of Scotland need and deserve a police force that does its job thoroughlyand efficiently. It has been increasingly clear in recent years that Police Scotland isnot working properly. Going around the country, listening to what ordinary officers,staff, members of the public and local politicians have had to say has painted aworryingly consistent picture of a centralised, politicised and autocratic police forcewith little to no meaningful local accountability. All this has emerged as aconsequence of the Scottish Governments handling of the formation of PoliceScotland. This Review is a distillation of these concerns, and a contribution to theprocess of shaping our police service and holding it to account that is essential inany democracy.

The Review is in four parts. Firstly, I will discuss issues regarding local accountabilityof the national force. Structural problems arising from the creation of the single forcelie at the heart of many of Police Scotlands problems, both in execution andperception. I will then move on to discuss a series of issues that have arisen in mydiscussions with ordinary staff members during the Review process. The thirdsection will explore the problems of top-level accountability within Police Scotlandsstructure. Finally, I will discuss issues of staffing and a narrow target-driven agendawithin Police Scotland.

Throughout this Review process, my staff and I have been reminded of the skill,

professionalism and dedication of Scotlands police officers. It is incumbent uponthose of us trusted with creating the structures in which they operate to ensure thatthey are supported and empowered. I have also been reminded of the importance ofentering into an open and sincere dialogue with local people. It is only with theconsent of the community that the police can operate. This consent must beconstantly renewed and secured. Their trust can be established only with stronglocal accountability, motivated local officers and properly created structures.


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Local accountability

Review submissions

The direct link with the community has been lost and needs to be reinstated"

Local accountability has been lost. Old Police Boards, chaired by seniorelected members kept local issues to the fore, and the local forces were heldmuch more accountable to local areas than they are now.

Helping those that need help is any police services essence. Arresting criminals andreporting evidence to the Procurator Fiscal is Police Scotlands duty. They are themark of successful policing and, local accountability lies at the heart of measuring

that success.

To that end, everything Police Scotland and its national partners do should seek todeliver on those objectives effectively. However, they must take account of the rolecouncillors and others at the local level should play. It is disappointing that COSLAsvoice on policing has been largely overlooked by the Scottish Government.Councillors on the local boards should already have a right of audience to the SPAon matters unresolved at their local committees in discussion with their commanders.These local committees could co-opt onto their committee local people who aredeemed skilled in the exercise of scrutiny for example, people from business,industry, crime prevention and victims' organisations. Perhaps even solicitors or

advocates, not primarily involved in criminal justice, could provide more forensicoversight.

Concerns have been raised by COSLA and others regarding the closures of controlrooms and police offices. These concerns could have been resolved had a betterprocess of consultation been in place. Many of the problems that have arisen fromcontrol rooms in recent times could have been avoided had police, fire andambulance services alongside the coastguard service been relocated into local hubsto improve cooperation and save significant finance in terms of infrastructuresupport.

It is often said by Police Scotland that there are 353 ward plans, agreed after localconsultation. Throughout the Review, we have met with many local people who areunaware of any such consultation, including many councillors. Only in parts ofHighland Region did we hear of physical consultation taking place to hear whatcommunities thought. It is clear that this is largely a meaningless process whichprovides little, if any, additional localisation.

The big unresolved matters from a local authority perspective include CCTV fundingand control and the need for ongoing funding commitments from local authorities.For example, the City of Edinburgh Council is currently considering the withdrawal of

more than 2 million in contributions to Police Scotland designed to enhance wardlevel policing across the city. Should other cash strapped local authorities go down


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the same route, local policing will be sorely affected under the funding regimecurrently in place.

One contributor to this Review stated that "the Scottish population has lost trust inthe police". I do not believe that this is entirely true; most ordinary people trust their

local officers to work diligently in the interests of the local area. However, the resultsof the recent staff survey, taken together with the contributions made to this Reviewpoint to the existence of two Police Scotlands. One on the shop floor, as the staffsurvey revealed, where officers and civilian staff work as a team, trust each otherand feel good about the work they do. The other Police Scotland fails to win thesupport of the public, politicians and the media due to its institutional failure to keepits promises and candidly tell the truth. The job now for the Scottish Government isto bring these two services together to ensure that the co-operation, hard work andearnestness shown at local level is replicated at the highest echelons of the nationalservice. It is no doubt a big task but one that officers, support staff and the public canrise to.

Many contributors made reference to the Strathclyde Way, reflecting the perceptionthat Police Scotland sought to deliver a one-size-fits-all approach to policing acrossthe country. This short-hand for centralisation created a sense of alienation in theminds of officers and staff at every level and made it more difficult for officers to usetheir initiative when dealing with problems.

To ensure that local accountability is at the heart of Police Scotlands service ,divisional commanders and local police leadership need to be given autonomy toallow them to answer the questions raised by their communities, rather than to bemessage carriers for the centre. At the same time, local councillors and those whowould serve on local committees should be offered training to ensure that they areable to ask challenging and probing questions of police rather than force fed withstatistics and targets. In that new light, committees would be best placed forapplauding good work, challenging shortcomings and contributing to policing in thefuture. Policing by consent will become a banner line of some meaning. Togetherwith that right of audience at the SPA board when necessary, levels of responsibilityin all matters policing will be clarified and have meaning with impact.

Running through many of the points raised was the perception that the service paidheed solely to the views of its Chief Constable who operated alongside an executive

group that offered little in the way of constructive alternative views at the time ofdecision. In the minds of staff, this was a major factor in the eruption of thecontroversies around stop and search, firearms policies, the closure of control roomsand police offices. The review offers no view on the accuracy of such opinions, butthere is no doubt such opinions were strongly and widely held. What is apparent isthe absence of any external challenge to developments across the policinglandscape unless and until events created a public clamour for action via the mediaor Scottish Parliamentarians.


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Practical Policing

Review submissions

The existing ICT is slow and unreliable making access to systems timeconsuming and problematic. This was not taken into account when the newstructure was applied.

Three officers from the west of the region spent 10 hours travelling with 3custodies Again, how can this be cost effective?

A variety of issues were raised concerning Police Scotlands approach to practical

policing. Many contributors pointed to inefficient and bureaucratic processes, whilstothers pointed to the botched introduction of IT systems as symptomatic of widerproblems in the service. There was also widespread concern regarding the proposedchanges to the status of the British Transport Police (BTP).

Custody Management

Custody Management across the Service is another issue raising concerns withoperational officers. It was reported that officers often have difficulties tracing a cellwithin which to lodge a prisoner due to too few cells being made available forcustodies across Scotland.

We have many examples of officers engaged for hours moving prisoners from onecustody centre to another as occupancy rates are exhausted. In one case, threeofficers spent ten hours taking the same prisoners from one location to anotherbefore lodging could be achieved. Consequently, a private company had to upliftthose same prisoners back to court on the first lawful day in the Jurisdiction wherethe arrest had taken place, creating further cost and inefficiency in the system. Thehealth and safety implications of this to officers are clear, as is the potential forprisoner violence or even escape. With prisoners often under the influence of alcoholor drugs, the potential for harm to them is also increased in such circumstances. Theimpact too on prisoners families who would wish to visit the office holding their loved

one is made the more difficult by these "tours".

Several officers reported that fewer than 50% of those arrested and detained incustody were subject to proper fingerprint and photographic procedures. It meantthat people could pass through custody without an outstanding warrant beingidentified and, in addition, the same person could repeatedly use false particularswithout detection. Though extremely serious in itself, the problem becomes evenmore pressing given the nature of travelling criminals not solely from the UK but nowfrom across the world. In terms of public and officer safety such failures are deeplytroubling.


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IT Systems

The capacity for existing and proposed information technology services to supportand enable a fast and effective policing response is severely questioned by all thosewho contributed to the Review and made comment on the issue. Officers and staff

complained bitterly of growing paperwork necessary to deliver on their work, and ofIT Systems making this process even more cumbersome. We often hear that PoliceScotland is in its infancy. However, many of the people charged with delivering inthis area of policing were in post for many years before the single service and weresupposed to be developing the future for policing across Scotland even then. So thehistory is not good.

The Common Performance Management Platform (CPMP) cost 8.7m, wasinoperable at any stage and abandoned with HMICS noting: Project risks and issueswere not identified and managed well throughout the project lifespan.1 The I6programme, ongoing for nearly a decade in one form or another and forecast to

spend 40m, is still not near to delivery despite assurances in Parliament from PoliceScotland and the SPA that the CPMP debacle would not be repeated. At the sametime rationalised control rooms across the country appear ill-served with thetechnical support to enable the seamless receipt of calls, information and intelligenceto be managed without human interventions. The system appears to require writtennotes to ensure the management of thousands of daily calls, when the logging ofcalls from the public should by now be the easiest element of the process given thesoftware solutions available. Simply, a police service without adequate andfunctioning IT services as described is not fit for the 21stcentury.

British Transport Police

The future for the British Transport Police (BTP) was raised at one meeting whereconcerns regarding safety on the railway lines, training, watering down of standards,interconnection across the network as well as pension rights, employment issuesand pay and conditions were all mentioned. From the Reviews viewpoint insufficientevidence has been forthcoming in support of submerging the BTP into PoliceScotland to make a judgement on its efficacy. A full business case must be producedahead of time to enable proper assessment and a judgement to be agreed. Untilthen, the sceptics will continue to suggest the eradication of "British" from thepolicing title is the main objective in this Scottish Government exercise. The absence

of a full business case stage in the development of the national police service hasproved critical in enabling failures to occur during this important reform phase.

Professional Standards

Complaints handling, professional standards and anti-corruption efforts are a sourceof concern in the minds of a number of officers and many members of the public.The use of the courts to resolve all issues of Data Protection infringements raisedserious questions of proportionality. The entire approach to professional standardswithin Police Scotland must be reviewed as a matter of urgency by senior members

1HMICS Review of the Common Performance Management Platform Project, April 2013 -

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0042/00425751.pdf
http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0042/00425751.pdfhttp://www.gov.scot/Resource/0042/00425751.pdfhttp://www.gov.scot/Resource/0042/00425751.pdf


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within Police Scotland and the Lord Advocate with a view to transferringresponsibility for these duties to the PIRC. It not only provides an enhanced level ofindependence in the future in respect of the management of these cases but such achange will also answer human rights concerns of those pursuing EuropeanConvention of Human Rights (ECHR) requirements by ensuring a demonstrable

independence in the handling of complaints from the beginning. Timescalesattached to the handling of such cases should also be addressed. The currentexamples of officers being suspended for years or subject of 'gardening leave'whatever that means in terms of police discipline is unacceptable. Staged andagreed updates should be made public to ensure progress is maintained to resolvecases.

Police Establishments

The question of political interference in policing decisions around policeestablishments was asked and many viewed political involvement in such decisions

as inappropriate. In discussion, I have been clear that my view from the beginningwas that such commitments had a negative side which we needed to identify. Wenow realise the additional 1000 police officers were delivered on the backs of nearly2500 support staff redundancies. It is also clear that the 1,000 officers promised bythe Scottish Government in 2007 did not translate to 1,000 additional people on thebeat. But rather officers have been redeployed to serve a series of office jobs,centralised units and national task forces. The needs of local policing have been allbut ignored in the rush to centralise the service and the drive to deliver 1.4 billion insavings too quickly.

Although public appetite for ever increasing numbers of police officers isunderstandable, decisions around the size and nature of police establishments andsupport should be a matter for the Chief Constable and the board of the SPA. Ifoperational independence is to have any meaning, the number and operationaldeployment of police officers should be a matter for the Chief Constable in light ofthe budget approved.


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Relationships

Review submissions

The SPA is completely ineffective in holding Police Scotland to account. TheChief Constable has too much power in non-operational matters. Policing

policies are not openly debated.

The Scottish Police Authority hasan essential role to play in calling the forceto account on behalf of the Scottish public, but the current Authority (a simplequango, all of whose members are appointed by the Minister) lacks the cloutand public standing which it needs.

It is clear from analysing the Scottish policing scene that a number of powerfulagencies and establishment groups have a huge influence over the way in whichpolicing is exercised in Scotland. Though not an exhaustive list, key amongst themare:

Police Scotland, the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) and the local policeoversight committees of councillors, the Lord Advocate, Scottish GovernmentMinisters and their civil servants and the Scottish Parliament.

Some - perhaps all will see themselves as representing to a lesser or greaterextent public opinion and the public's voice in all matters law enforcement and

policing. What has become clear since policing reform however is the vital need foreach of these agents to play their full part in developing a police service capable ofpolicing communities by consent while maintaining the capacity to protect theinterests of Scotland as a nation at a time of crisis. To that extent, the reformprogress has been imperfect in its delivery. Too much time was spent creatingpositive messages and sound bites, too many announcements regarding partnershipworking but at the same time too little commitment to delivering on the basic needsof people across our communities.

The Scottish Government seems to have failed to understand or has wilfully ignoredthe importance of ensuring the relationships between all these agencies worktogether to deliver an efficient and effective police service. As a result we havewitnessed a series of fudged outcomes, soft commentaries and reviews plainlydesigned to avoid the realities of what has gone wrong. The fanfare of 'lessonslearned' has played too often on the back of soft peddled observations in respect ofthe shortcomings thus far. A single, now acknowledged by the SNP, as a Nationalpolice service is also a police force. It is imperative that those we trust to lead anddirect that service or force are held to account no matter how painful that exerciseproves to be. Increasingly the public have concerns about privacy, technicalsurveillance and the role of the police supporting Scottish Government policies. Inthat light, transparency, good governance and effective accountability at the highest

levels will ensure the good health of policing for the next generation.


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Scottish Police Authority (SPA)

Put simply, the SPA has failed in its role to hold the Chief Constable to account andto provide robust governance of Police Scotland.

The SPA should be on top of issues at national level, and of potential concernsraised at local committees.

The SPA board should also be questioning and scrutinising policy changes, andbased on the evidence and arguments presented make a decision to ratify thechange or to request that more work be done. When it came to the policy changewhich saw a blanket standing authorisation issued to firearms officers, and firearmsofficers on routine calls, the SPA did not receive a full and comprehensive briefing onthe issue from the Chief Constable before implementation. It was rubber stampedafter the event as one policy change contained within a bulging folder of documents.There was no scrutiny, and ratification was not given consciously or sought by the

Chief Constable.

Similarly, the SPA failed to provide any oversight with regard to the practice of stopand search which was used in Scotland with far more regularity than in theMetropolitan Police or by the New York Police Department (NYPD). The setting ofsubstantial targets for officers across Scotland contributing to the numbers of stopsearches rising to 600,000 in a year without SPA Board agreement is unacceptable.

The SPA has to demonstrate that it takes its scrutiny function seriously. The ChiefConstable of the Police Service of Scotland is an incredibly powerful and importantposition. He or she has a great deal of responsibility to communities across thiscountry and the SPA, and local committees, are the main forums in which the ChiefConstable will be held to account. There has to be an expectation that key (non-operational) projects, and any policy changes are brought before the SPA board forratification; that the board challenges the need and the details of any such proposalto test its robustness; and then makes a decision whether to sign off the proposal orto reject it, asking for more information or justification if necessary.

The Board, in its first few years, has been reactive to events. If it was playing its roleeffectively, some of the controversies that have beset Police Scotland would havebeen avoided.

Scottish Government

The Scottish Government has failed to take on board concerns about relationships atplay between key organisations. It has also failed to ensure that the hand-pickedBoard of the SPA were aware of their role and were equipped to carry it out. TheCabinet Secretary for Justice from the outset should have confirmed his relationshipwith the Convenor of the SPA as the avenue to resolve police related issues. Infailing to do so, he left it open to allow political involvement in matters that shouldhave been solved between the Board and Police Scotland.

Again, the issue of the standing authorisation for firearms officers serves as a goodexample. It wasnt that Board members didnt ask questions about the policy change


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they didnt realise that any change to an arming of po lice policy was beingproposed.

The Scottish Government has also repeatedly suggested that questions or concernsraised were asking the Scottish Ministers to get involved in policing and were

therefore threatening to the Chief Constables operational independence.Operational independence is essential for the Chief Constable in times of urgencyand crisis when committee decisions are unrealistic and in regard to the investigationof crime. However, Scottish Ministers have shown themselves to be selective as towhen they do or do not get involved. When Kenny MacAskill was Justice Secretary,he received a private briefing from the Chief Constable on the issue of standingauthorisationwhereas the SPA board did not.2The First Minister Nicola Sturgeonbypassed the SPA board when she contacted the Chief Constable directly regardingthe use of stop and search on children and announced that the practice would bestopping forthwith.3The Cabinet Secretary Michael Matheson felt able, on the benefitof a briefing from Police Scotland to make public (and it proved inaccurate)

statements with regard to the crash off the M9 earlier this year.4 In each case,Scottish Ministers involved themselves in issues that the SPA should have resolved.

If the Scottish Government had ensured that the SPA was more robust, theseinterventions would not be necessary. The Cabinet Secretary or First Minister shouldhave contacted the Chair of the SPA Board rather than the Chief Constable.

Currently, the SPA has the demeanour of a rubber stamping body rather than onetasked with holding the Chief Constable of Police Scotland to account. One reasonfor this is perhaps that it doesnt know its role and purpose. The legislation is clear inmy view and ensures that Scottish Ministers appoint the Chair and Board of the SPA.That Board, selected by the Chair from candidates approved by the ScottishGovernment has to be made up of people with a proven record in delivering robustgovernance. It also should not feel beholden to its benefactors, the ScottishGovernment. The position of Chair of the SPA should therefore be made confirmableby a vote of the whole parliament. While this may be symbolic in practice, it wouldhopefully demonstrate that the Board is not merely an extension of the ScottishGovernment, and give them more confidence to proceed when they need to.

The Scottish Government has failed to produce a full business case for PoliceScotland. Many MSPs asked for one, including myself. In fact, I asked for the full

business case at the first evidence-gathering panel held by the Justice Committeeinto the Police and Fire Reform Act 2012.5

A business case should set out the justification for the reform; the justification forfollowing this reform instead of taking another action; of the costs involved; and adetailed expectation of the benefits of the project. Creating a single police force isthe biggest public service reform in Scotland since devolution, and the biggest

2http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=9199&i=88975;

3http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-31365283;http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-

news/police-scotland-chief-set-consider-51113564http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/inquiry-scapegoat-fears-over-m9-crash-tragedy-

1-3830093#axzz3qcf8ia1l5Justice Committee Official Report28 February 2012

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=7208&mode=pdf
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=9199&i=88975http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=9199&i=88975http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=9199&i=88975http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-31365283http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-31365283http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-31365283http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/police-scotland-chief-set-consider-5111356http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/police-scotland-chief-set-consider-5111356http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/police-scotland-chief-set-consider-5111356http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/police-scotland-chief-set-consider-5111356http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/inquiry-scapegoat-fears-over-m9-crash-tragedy-1-3830093#axzz3qcf8ia1lhttp://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/inquiry-scapegoat-fears-over-m9-crash-tragedy-1-3830093#axzz3qcf8ia1lhttp://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/inquiry-scapegoat-fears-over-m9-crash-tragedy-1-3830093#axzz3qcf8ia1lhttp://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/inquiry-scapegoat-fears-over-m9-crash-tragedy-1-3830093#axzz3qcf8ia1lhttp://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=7208&mode=pdfhttp://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=7208&mode=pdfhttp://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=7208&mode=pdfhttp://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/inquiry-scapegoat-fears-over-m9-crash-tragedy-1-3830093#axzz3qcf8ia1lhttp://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/inquiry-scapegoat-fears-over-m9-crash-tragedy-1-3830093#axzz3qcf8ia1lhttp://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/police-scotland-chief-set-consider-5111356http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/police-scotland-chief-set-consider-5111356http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-31365283http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=9199&i=88975


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change to policing in 40 years. Yet there is no business case that was shared aheadof time to educate the public of the reforms being undertaken and the expectedimpact. And no business case to consult now to determine how the structures, ascurrently operating, compare to the vision set out by Ministers.


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Staffing and targets

Review submissions

Officers [are] now being lumbered with extra work due to the severe cuts tocivilian staff.

"It is accepted that targets can be a very useful tool to improve services - butwhen these become the sole incentive within an organisation the organisationloses its way.

Scotland's police officers are doing their best under very difficult circumstances.

However, instead of doing the job they trained for, too many are having to fill backoffice functions because of Scottish Government inspired cuts to civilian staff.Thousands of civilian staff have been laid off, undervalued by the ScottishGovernment whose commitment to 1000 extra officers without regard for the totalforce strength. Highly trained officers are now completing various administrativeinstead of being on the beat.

Backfilling

Much has already been said and even more denied by both the police and the SPAin relation to backfilling. However, almost at every stage of this review process, we

have heard stories affecting intelligence, warrants, firearms, forensics,administration, personnel, control rooms, custody suites and public counters wherecivilian staff have been made redundant or moved to see their duties taken over by auniformed police officer.

For example, the Review learned that in one division, 130 police officers wereallocated support duties. Those duties included Service delivery (1 inspector 2sergeants and 6 PCs); Licensing (1, 2 and 5); Operations planning (1, 2 and 8);Prevention and intervention (1, 2 and 14); Divisional admin support (1, 5 and 58);local authority liaison (0, 2 and 1); and Performance support (0, 0 and 18). Some ofthese jobs may indeed require a police officers input, but on the whole, this cannot

be the best use of an officers time.

In addition, the better systems much needed across the police service would, withoutdoubt, enable many of the statistics gathered by these groups to be obtained withoutthe loss of so many trained and professional police officers. Those officers left onthe shifts responsible for responding to calls for assistance are feeling the pressuresthey face and have a view that they are not prioritised sufficiently as a vital part ofthe service in need of resources. For their part, support staff feel under threat asthey are shifted or made voluntarily redundant to accommodate policy imperatives.The staff who leave take with them professionalism and knowledge invaluable in theareas they previously worked. In one case referred to us, a section of support stafffirst discovered they were no longer to be employed in their area of expertise whenthey attended a PowerPoint presentation from a senior officer and noted the slide


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colouring denoted they were superfluous to future requirements. These storiescirculate the force like wildfire and demotivated the very people the service reliesupon.

Selection Processes

Selection procedures and promotions created some comment from contributorsparticularly in relation to senior ranks. The impact of those concerns can be seen inthe staff survey results recently published which found that only 21% understoodhow promotion decisions were made. This lack of confidence in senior ranks is clearwith only 9% of respondents believing that senior managers in SPA/Police Scotlandwould take action of the results of this Survey.6[For SPA/Police Scotland survey seeAppendix 1; For ASPS Resilience Survey 2015 see Appendix 2]

Given the new arrangements for policing in this national set up, with all the rushforward, little thought has been given to the ways in which command level officers

and senior staff are to be appointed. The absence of local input via the now defunctPolice and Fire Committee is an important shortcoming. In addition, the ability of HerMajestys Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) to properly assess andgrade officers as they put themselves forward for these important posts is severelyrestricted in the single service. Acceptance on the Strategic Command Course bymeans of extended interviews, which used to be a pre-requisite, is apparently nolonger a requirement, as recent appointments to Police Scotland have shown.

At its heart, the selection process still has the Cabinet Secretary with substantialinfluence over who will be successful. In other jurisdictions, appointments as a chiefofficer would need ratification from the Legislature through a committee oversight.That is not to say such a committee would decide on an appointment but havingreviewed the process of appointment such a committee would offer or with hold itsapproval. Such a course of action would be worthy of consideration in these newcircumstances.

Targets

Evidence given to this review suggests the reorganisation of policing through targetindices has had the effect of creating silos in Police Scotland. Locally based officers,centrally tasked, operate out with the divisional needs as they respond to immediate

tasking demands. As a result for example, traffic officers will be driven by the targetsset by their central command, though they work alongside divisional resources, whoare under stress to deliver on calls. Traffic personnel, firearms officers and controlroom staff may desire to support their front line colleagues, but first and foremost intheir minds have been the targets set for them individually. For control rooms, thathas meant answering calls inside a certain time. What happened to the call, howwas it dealt with and did the caller feel happy with what the response was remainedunknown and without measurement. What did come over during the review howeverwas an impression that so long as the call was logged as handled in some way, thetarget has been met and, therefore, the job is done. In the tragic case of the deaths

6

SPA/Police Scotland: Opinion SurveySeptember 2015http://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/138327/307421/spa-police-scotland-opinion-survey-2015?view=Standard
http://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/138327/307421/spa-police-scotland-opinion-survey-2015?view=Standardhttp://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/138327/307421/spa-police-scotland-opinion-survey-2015?view=Standardhttp://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/138327/307421/spa-police-scotland-opinion-survey-2015?view=Standardhttp://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/138327/307421/spa-police-scotland-opinion-survey-2015?view=Standardhttp://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/138327/307421/spa-police-scotland-opinion-survey-2015?view=Standard


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of Lamara Bell and John Yuill on the M9, the target was met in so far as the call waseventually handled. This demonstrates the deficiency of such a narrow, target-focussed approach to policing.

In a separate development, the operation of PADS (public advice departments) and

flexible policing units may be seen as papering over the cracks, as they superficiallydeal with volume calls and apparently fill the gaps but in essence act primarily as acatch-all mechanism.


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Recommendations

Though much evidence was gathered by this review, a great deal more remains to

be unearthed. We can but hope the governments own review of Police Scotland willapply its extensive resources to as wide and deep an examination of the criticalissues for the future as possible.

A copy of this review will be shared with the Cabinet Secretary for Justice to use ashe sees fit. For the sake of those who provide us with policing across Scotland, Ihope the Scottish Government take seriously the worrying signs noted throughoutthis review and respond positively.

Improve Parliamentary oversight - The Scottish Parliament shouldconvene a committee of the Parliament to oversee the national emergencyservices of police, fire and rescue, ambulance and coast guard in the contextof the national infrastructure arrangements and preparedness foremergencies.

Ensure resources meet local needs - A resource audit must now beconducted across the country to identify accurately the staff and resourceallocation for each 'community', whether that be at local authority or policedivisional levels, as decided by local committees. [See Appendix 3; exampleof breakdown by borough of Met Police Officers deployed to EmergencyResponse Teams]

Build a link between local committees and the SPA - Convenors oflocal committees should be given a right of audience at the Scottish PoliceAuthority board meetings regarding issues that are beyond resolution at thelocal level.

Ensure a properly balanced force - The Chief Constable with theagreement of the SPA should determine the balance of the force required; toensure the most effective police force possible.

Enable better local oversight - All members of local committees should

be trained so that they can properly hold Police Scotland to account. Thereshould be a formal recognition that the primary purpose of local committees isto hold divisional commanders to account on the issues that are important tothose committees.

Share best practice and concerns- There should be a recognised voicefor deputy and assistant chief constables in the gathering of information interms of policy. With the end of ACPOS no recognised forum is currentlyavailable to capture those views.

A more robust SPA - The SPA must adapt its role in order to scrutinisegenuine governance in order to ensure high levels of public accountability for


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police activities and budgets. The Chair of the SPA should be madeconfirmable by a vote of the whole parliament

Urgently review IT infrastructure- There is an urgent need for an activereview of IT strategy and IT deliverables. Given that accurate information and

intelligence is vital to policing the absence of a dependable end to end ITprovision is a risk too far in this modern age. We can buy products across theworld from Amazon and eBay more easily than police can access their owndatabases across Scotland.

Clear complaint handling - The Police Investigation and ReviewCommissioner (PIRC) should be given the sole responsibility for the conductof investigations alleging misconduct and criminality affecting the service. Allcases should be referred to PIRC who can refer back low level complaints toPolice Scotland.

Learn from the past: a full business case is crucial- There should bean acknowledgement from the Scottish Government and the Scottish PoliceAuthority that the absence of a full business case before the commencementof Police Scotland has created significant problems when taking forward areform of this magnitude.


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Police Scotland currently employs 17,492 police officers and 5,946 support staff.11,796 people took part in survey (50.4% response rate)

Information overload and organisational change

Nearly half of respondents feeling overloaded with information that they didnot need to know (47%) yet only 22% of respondents felt that they hadappropriate information on what Police Scotland want to achieve and 12% feltthey had appropriate information on what SPA want to achieve.

36% of respondents felt that they got the right amount of information to do

their job. Officers feel they are losing touch with local people: Police Officers also

suggested that they felt their role was changing and expressed a concernedthat they were losing contact with local communities rather than increasingtheir focus on local issues. Many of these comments mentioned a concernrelated to a policing model adopted where they felt one size did not fit allareas. (p.34)

19% of police officers believed the actions of senior management areconsistent with the forces values.

Only 21% knew how promotions decisions were made.

Only 9% believed those at the top would take action on the surveys results.

Undervalued and under resourced

47% of all respondents stated that they did not receive recognition for anygood work that they do and 37% stated they were not motivated to do the jobto the best of their ability

Only 15% felt valued and recognised for the work they do

47% of respondents felt that pressure at work was affecting their performanceat work. 16% of respondents strongly agreed with this statement, with thebalance of 31% agreeing with the statement.

30% felt that they had the resources they needed to do their job properly Only 50% believed their work gave them a sense of personal achievement.

Only 30% receive recognition for any good work they do.

Only 18% thought they would be supported if they tried a new idea, even if itdid not work.

Wellbeing ignored

8% thought that the organisation was genuinely interest in the wellbeing of itspeople

Only 60% felt able to raise issues about their physical health and 53% of theirmental health

Appendix 1summary of the SPA/Police Scotland Staff Survey 2015


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Only 18% thought that they had been provided with opportunities for them todevelop their careers.

Only 18% receive training and development that is relevant to their futurecareer development.

Only 40% believed they were able to achieve a good work/life balance.

Only 15% felt valued and recognised for the work they do. Only 18% of policeofficers felt valued for the work they do.

Only 37% are proud to work for the force.

Only 17% would recommend it as a good place to work.

33% of respondents saw themselves leaving SPA/Police Scotland in the nearfuture.

49% highlighted the pension changes as a reason to question theircommitment.

Full survey report - http://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/138327/307421/spa-

police-scotland-opinion-survey-2015?view=Standard
http://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/138327/307421/spa-police-scotland-opinion-survey-2015?view=Standardhttp://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/138327/307421/spa-police-scotland-opinion-survey-2015?view=Standardhttp://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/138327/307421/spa-police-scotland-opinion-survey-2015?view=Standardhttp://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/138327/307421/spa-police-scotland-opinion-survey-2015?view=Standardhttp://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/138327/307421/spa-police-scotland-opinion-survey-2015?view=Standard


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Organisational and Demand Issues:

Senior management approach is harsh and unhelpful: 66%

Everyone tends to work long hours: 89%

Achieving performance targets is the top priority: 89% Role places high level of demand on them: 95%

Role involves excessive breadth and depth of responsibility: 76%

Insufficient resources/staff to do job: 58%

Work hard because they dont want to be seen as weak: 48%

Key Points: Superintendents feelthey work in a high pressure,competitive, cliquey environment thatis understaffed and under resourced.

Line Managers promote a healthierwork environment than Chief Officers,although both must improve workenvironment. Bullying behaviours(unfair criticism, intimidation, verbalinsults, and misuse of power) arepresent and must be addressed.However, most members (82%) get abuzz from working in the rank, and90% see Police Scotland as theirpersonal vocation.

Health and Wellbeing:(uses HADS Scale respond with normal, mild, moderate, orsevere)

Anxiety: 26% Moderate or Severe

Depression: 7%Moderate or Severe

ONLY 23% take all annual leave days

Specific Concerns: Working Hours and Risks

82% may be in breach of European Working Time Directive

75% say they dont record their hours accurately because they are too busy orits not a priority

18% say there is no appropriate system to recordtheir hours

While 89% say they did not take sickness absence,41% say they were treated for one or more healthconditions

Concluding Points:

Lack of personal control and insufficient resources

has led to unhealthy levels of anxiety and depressionamong the members.

Appendix 2summary of the ASPS Resilience Survey 2015

[There is an] emphasis on feeling

that you have to be at workcosts associated with

presenteeism can be higher andmore costly to the organizations

in the longer term than thoseincurred due to absence.


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Mental health issues are unlikely to be reported openly since there is a culturethat promotes infallibility and seeking support as a weakness.

Individual wellbeing must be improved, which by consequence will enhancethe quality of service to communities.

ASPS executive has established Wellbeing Group to monitor and report on

progress and implement initiatives.

Full survey report - http://asps.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ASPS-Resilience-Survey-2015.pdf
http://asps.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ASPS-Resilience-Survey-2015.pdfhttp://asps.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ASPS-Resilience-Survey-2015.pdfhttp://asps.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ASPS-Resilience-Survey-2015.pdfhttp://asps.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ASPS-Resilience-Survey-2015.pdfhttp://asps.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ASPS-Resilience-Survey-2015.pdf


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Appendix 3 Strength of Metropolitan Police Emergency Response Teams (ERTs), brokendown by Boroughs


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Appendix 4 - Review submissions

These submissions have been anonymised. Where necessary words have been insertedby me or my team to replace specific locations or references. These words are in italics.

Submission 1:

In one Scottish city, the Control Room currently deal with all 999 calls for the legacyPolice area. The calls are dealt with in house in that they are received there and ifappropriate units are dispatched by the call takers. This often occurs whilst the originalcaller is still on the phone to the Control Room. If there is a query the answer isinvariably within the room. A first class, non delayed service, assisted by the operatorshaving local knowledge of the area concerned.

By contrast Police Scotland's second class, delay entrenched method will be to haveoperators in other cities and towns, unfamiliar with our area, taking the emergency calls,

creating electronic incidents and transferring these to Dundee. There will then be a waitfor Dundee staff to accept this transfer. Thereafter the Dundee operator, without our arealocal knowledge, will have to scrutinise the information, including the location and thespecific details before then dispatching a unit.

And what if there is a query. Another inbuilt delay as the operator in Dundee will have tocontact the informant again to clarify the information. If that person is unavailable, asituation that regularly occurs, the next option is to contact the originator of thetransferred call in the vast establishment in the other city or town. And if they are onanother call...what then?

The general public are unaware of this!

AND EVEN MORE WORRYING.............Neither does our First Minister.

In a recent Q & A session on Facebook she stated that Dundee would be taking 999calls.

TOTALLY WRONG....not a clue.

I and the general public were in the hope that the recent motorway tragedy would neverbe repeated and that the overriding process being put in place would be to avoid similardelays....on the contrary, the process being put in place is far from that, and indeed a

second rate service compared to what they currently receive.

Submission 2:

I feel far too much emphasis has been put on the commitment to serving police officers(SNP Pledge) meaning that officers are being used to fill office based roles ordinarilyfilled by civilian staff in order to maintain this figure. These officers are better served outin the community and longer term its proven to be more cost effective having civilianisedroles. Staffing levels at a minimum and targets increasingly becoming more difficult tomeet all the while the pay freeze impact on staff leading to low morale and feeling of

"only being a number" and not a valued member of the policing community.


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Submission 3:

The SPA is completely ineffective in holding Police Scotland to account. The ChiefConstable has too much power in non-operational matters. Policing policies are notopenly debated.

Local accountability has been lost. Old Police Boards, chaired by senior electedmembers kept local issues to the fore, and the local forces were held much moreaccountable to local areas than they are now. This is missing now, and needs to berestored.

In my view, the single force can work, but it is currently too centralised, too focussed onbudgets cuts, and target driven.

Submission 4:

Whilst the Government may boast about the increase in local scrutiny of policingarrangements in my view they are of little value. These Council led groups appear toscrutinise police activity within certain defined parameters. The greatest weakness isthat the local police commander is not accountable to them. If Police Scotland choosesto ignore the advice or recommendation provided by such a group it is free to do so.

Another great weakness is that there is no formal procedure or forum where thesescrutiny groups can meet with the Scottish Police Authority or central government to airany concerns they have about policing in their area.

Submission 5:

1. There is no doubt that the decision to establish a single Scottish police force wasthe right one (and long overdue). Under the old structure there were 5 tiny forceswhich simply did not have the expertise or range of experience to cope with thechallenges of modern policing.

2. However the model chosen for the new single force was over-centralised and didnot take account of local circumstances and views. Most policing is local (over75%) and local communities ought to have an input into how this is organised,local priorities and plans, and their delivery. It would be perfectly possible, withinthe context of a single force, to establish (statutory) police committees with theability to discuss and agree priorities and business plans for a particular area andto call the local Assistant Chief Constable to account. I would be thinking in termsof setting up 6 or so committees across Scotland to reflect (to some extent) thegeographical diversity of Scotland. Membership of the committees would consistof councillors nominated by each of the councils for that area.

3. The Scottish Police Authority has an essential role to play in calling the force toaccount on behalf of the Scottish public, but the current Authority (a simplequango, all of whose members are appointed by the Minister) lacks the clout andpublic standing which it needs. Ideally the Authority should be directly elected, but

there are other options. It could be elected by the Parliament (in effect as aparliamentary committee). Or its composition could be determined statutorily so


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that, for example the regional police committees at 2 above could each have theright to nominate one member with the balance being added by the Minister.

4. In any event the Chair of the Police Authority should be a public figure who isaccountable to the Parliament and not just to the Minister. One way of seeking to

achieve this would be to provide that his or her appointment should be subject toconfirmation by the Parliament.

5. The position of the Inspectorate of Constabulary needs to be addressed. TheInspectorate has an important potential role to play in providing an independent,professional assessment of how the force is performing. However the Scottishinspectorate has always been less powerful than the English Inspectorate which,it should be noted, is now headed by someone who is not a policeman. Bycomparison the Scottish Inspectorate is headed by someone who was formerly anAssistant Chief Constable in the force he is now inspecting; in a rank consciousservice (and however able the incumbent may be) this counts! More

fundamentally it is questionable whether an Inspectorate which inspects only oneforce serves a useful purpose, given that one of its main functions (since Victoriantimes) has been to compare different forces and to raise the standards of theweaker to those of the best. In order to provide an independent assessment ofhow the Scottish force is performing in relation to other comparable police forces(ie outwith Scotland), expertise needs to be brought in from the rest of the UK,Europe and even the US.

6. Another option which should be considered is to absorb the Inspectorate ofConstabulary into a wider Justice Services Inspectorate, to include the PrisonsInspectorate, the Courts Inspectorate and the criminal justice element of theSocial Work Inspectorate. Such an Inspectorate would then be able to review howcriminal justice is delivered across the range of services, rather than from differentsilos. I would however reiterate the point that perspectives from outwith Scotlandwould be very valuable.


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the pearson review of policing in scotland

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