Paddy Tomkins – Scotland should have single Police force

At the end of his tenure as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland, Paddy Tomkins, former Chief Constable of Lothian & Borders Police, (to name but a few of his ‘accolades’) has said that Scotland should have a single Police force, given the tighter public spending which may make holding onto the 8 regional forces as unviable.

Not everyone seems to agree with that point of view .. for now …

The appointment of a new HMIC has still to be made by Justice Secretary MacAskill … as we reported earlier in the month here :

The Scotsman reports :

Watchdog champions single Scots police force

Published Date: 20 March 2009
By michael howie
home affairs correspondent

A SINGLE Scottish police force is needed to protect the service against cuts in public spending, according to the country's chief inspector of constabulary.

Paddy Tomkins says tighter public spending is strengthening the case for scrapping the current set-up of eight police forces in favour of a national police body.

In an interview with The Scotsman, Mr Tomkins said policing in Scotland "cannot afford" to remain in its present structure and he argues a single force is needed.

Scotland's police receive about £1.2 billion a year but have been told by ministers to make annual efficiency savings of 2 per cent. Concern over reduced funding to the Scottish Government from Westminster in future years and increased pensions costs are also impacting on the police service.

Mr Tomkins said: "If things continue, and public services become so constrained that you have to make very radical revisions to how they do business, that can be a major positive force for change.

"That inevitably impacts on structure. We need to have no assumptions (in] discussions about the future of the police in Scotland.

"It's my view that there should be a single national police force." Mr Tomkins had advocated a single force prior to taking up the watchdog role two years ago.

But last year, he told a Scottish Police Federation conference that he had changed his mind on the issue.

However, on the eve of his departure from the post, he has reopened the debate over the future of the Scottish police service.

His comments will not go down well with many chief constables who are firmly opposed to merging forces.

In January, Mr Tomkins published a report into the future of policing, which called for the creation of a national steering group to decide which police functions should be carried out nationally.

He said: "My time in the job has strengthened my view that many functions need to be delivered nationally. It's convinced me that local policing does not need the overheads of those back-office functions.

"It defeats me why we need eight different payroll structures, eight different HR structures, eight different recruiting structures, and I could go on."

Chief Constable Colin McKerracher, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, said he thought that talk of a national force was ''premature''.

He said: "The subject of changes to the structure of policing in Scotland comes up from time to time and we are always prepared to take part in the debate.

''Until, however, there are firm proposals for fundamental changes to the structure of local government as well as policing, we believe the subject is on hold and the debate a little premature."

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: "There are no plans to change the number of police forces in Scotland, which serve our communities well."

HMIC criticises Scotland's Police Forces for ignoring the public

Its now the turn of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland to 'criticise' Scotland's Police Forces for seemingly ignoring the public.

The Herald reports :

Watchdog attacks police for ignoring the public

JULIA HORTON

Scotland's police routinely fail to give victims of crimes, witnesses and the public vital information on investigations, an official report has found.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland (HMICS) warned this failure meant forces are in danger of losing crucial help from the public in solving crimes, while the quality of service was suffering because officers were too busy focusing on target setting and other "performance management".

The report into how police dealt with contact from members of the public comes the day after Lothian and Borders Police was condemned by Scotland's police complaints commissioner for failing to respond properly to complainants.

Both reports mirror statistics revealing a growing public discontent across the country over poor police communication.

The inspectorate's report authors found "no recognisable standard" for providing feedback which was "rarely, if ever" published for people to see.

They stated: "We also considered the large number of calls made to the police to provide information, for example I've seen something suspicious' or I think you should know where these drug dealers are operating'.

"We found little evidence of any systematic approach to either following through this contact ... or capturing callers' views on how they had been dealt with. It appeared that very few were given any feedback, unless they were needed as witnesses. As a result, the service may be missing valuable opportunities to encourage further future contact from these members of the public."

They added: "It appeared to us that the service's focus on quality management had diminished recently. It may be that the increased emphasis on performance management, through process improvement and target-setting, has diverted attention from quality of service."

The inspectorate's review calls for a national minimum standard for feedback which should be published so people know what they should expect.

It also urged the Scottish Government to review the way the criminal justice system provides information to witnesses of crimes and victims, after branding the current approach "uncoordinated at best and confusing or duplicative at worst".

The most recent figures from Audit Scotland based on public opinion surveys by the police found that the number of people who were very or fairly satisfied with the way in which police dealt with them fell from almost 83% in 2000 to just over 77% in 2006.

Conversely, the number of people either very or fairly dissatisfied rose from 8.5% in 2000 to 14.4% in 2006.

The Assistant Inspector of Constabulary Malcolm Dickson yesterday stressed that the police did often provide good feedback and that officers were short on time.

He said: "We appreciate that individual officers are very busy, working 24-hour shifts, so we think giving feedback should be more of an organisational responsibility."

However he added: "This inspection was prompted by a widespread recognition within the police service that one of the weakest areas in its dealings with the public is a failure to provide updates or feedback on how an inquiry was progressing.

"During the inspection we confirmed this weakness."

Other recommendations in the HMICS report included putting a strong emphasis on good customer care when training new staff and making more use of mobile phones and e-mail to boost communication with the public.

Mr Dickson said there had been "tremendous" improvements in the way the private sector provides information to its customers and that the police service could not allow itself to fall behind.

The report author's also suggested that Victim Support Scotland could help provide feedback to crime victims.

A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland pledged to consider the report's recommendations and implement them "as appropriate".

The government also said it would look at recommendations and explore "what more can be done to improve information flow to victims".