Policing Together and working with communities

Criminal Justice Committee evidence session
Along with Deputy Chief Constable Jane Connors and Chief Financial Officer James Gray, I represented Police Scotland during an evidence session of the Scottish Parliament's Criminal Justice Committee in December.
During a wide-ranging session, I underlined how impressed I have been by Police Scotland since appointment as Chief Constable; outlined my initial response to the Scottish Government Budget which had been announced a day earlier; set out my priorities and vision for policing in Scotland; and gave my perspective on broader challenges including criminal justice reform and how public services support people who suffer poor mental health.

Historic Data Wash
Since my appointment, I have been hugely impressed by the quality of our officers and staff, their dedication to public service, and the high standards of professional behaviour and integrity they display on a daily basis.
In the final week of January, we published our results from the UK-wide Historical Data Wash, led by the National Police Chiefs' Council. Through this exercise, every police officer, member of police staff and volunteer was checked against national systems to ensure there were no criminal or suspected criminal issues relating to our workforce which we, as Police Scotland, were not already aware of.
The returns for Police Scotland were overwhelmingly positive, with only a very small number of instances where advice and guidance were provided to officers and staff in order to maintain their integrity and that of the organisation. One case has resulted in a criminal investigation concerning a member of police staff with regards to allegations of misuse of police systems, and enquiries are ongoing.
The safeguarding and promotion of our values and standards is an important aspect of maintaining and building the public trust required to for effective policing and our Policing Together programme drives a Service-wide focus to embed this approach across the organisation.

Community engagement session
Our Policing Together programme is also driving engagement to ensure we are thoughtfully and deliberately maintaining and building trust and confidence with all communities.
As part of this, along with other officers and staff, I met with key individuals from religious and minority ethnicity communities at Dalmarnock police office, Glasgow, on Thursday, 11 January 2024. This event, where I led a question and answer session, contributed to our understanding and relationships as we build an effective and inclusive service for all communities.
We want people from all communities to see policing as a potential career. People from all communities must feel able to speak to the police, whether to report a crime or to share information.

Celebrating inclusion
Recognising the various cultural and religious events that are important to our people and the communities we serve is an important part of our commitment to becoming an anti-discriminatory service.
This month, the Service has joined together to celebrate LGBT History Month, which is an annual awareness campaign, originally founded in 2004 which recognises the contribution LGBT+ people have made to society, and the many challenges they have faced. Across Police Scotland we have marked the month by sharing content on our internal communication channels and hosting online events that will allow people to learn more.
Recently, we have also marked Race Equality Week, Lunar New Year, Christmas, Hannukah and Lent.

Building an anti-discriminatory service
Hearing directly from our officers and staff is crucial as we build an anti-racist, anti-discriminatory service. In January, I was pleased to attend an interactive, panel event for Black and Minority Ethnic colleagues hosted by Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs.
This session, was delivered in partnership between Police Scotland and SEMPER Scotland, and followed on from and build on a similar event held in May 2023.

Change to prioritise frontline policing
I have asked Deputy Chief Constable Jane Connors to lead a programme of change, focused on delivering service transformation at pace.
That work will allow us to develop a new operating model to live within projected funding while maintaining service to the public by prioritising the frontline, removing back-office duplication, and creating capacity to deal with new and increasing threats.
The change programme will be a three-year journey that will see us design and implement a new sustainable operating model while prioritising service delivery against areas of greatest threat, harm, and risk.
Change can be unsettling but we are building Police Scotland from a position of strength and we must clearly explain the changes to the public so they can be confident in their police service.

Technology to support frontline policing
In December, Police Scotland reached a significant milestone with the roll-out of a new national crime system.
The completion of the Core Operational Solutions project means officers all over the country have, for the first time in policing in Scotland, access to the same systems to manage crimes and report cases to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, enhancing our ability to deliver justice for victims.
It represents a major step in the journey of the single national service as we continue to transform and introduce new technology designed to improve the service we provide to Scotland’s communities.
Five new core policing systems - Case, Crime, Warrants, Direct Measures and Productions - replace 44 separate legacy systems, streamline processes, and provide efficiencies for our officers.
The new systems significantly reduce re-keying of information, improve access to information, provide easier information sharing between officers across Scotland and better insight into victims and perpetrators.
COS is also an important foundation for applications such as the cross-sector Digital Evidence Sharing Capability (DESC), which will give officers the capability to share evidence we have captured, for example by officers through Body Worn Video, to help prosecutors and courts make quicker decisions about proceedings and secure swifter justice outcomes for victims.

Summary Case Management
We are working closely with criminal justice partners to support the introduction of Summary Case Management for domestic abuse cases in Scotland's busiest court, Glasgow Sheriff Court. It reduces the number of witnesses required to give evidence minimising the impact on both victims and witnesses.
Addressing cases, especially domestic abuse cases, in this way creates a supportive environment for victims and witnesses as it reduces the requirement for them to attend court to give live evidence in the same room as their abuser.
In the courts where Summary Case Management is already live we have seen police officer citations reduce by one third and this is another positive, as it means we can deploy police resources more appropriately in their communities instead of having them sitting in court unnecessarily. This is a really positive initiative and I look forward to seeing further developments as it develops in Glasgow.

Estates transformation
In December, we announced plans to consult and engage the public on a number of police stations and other buildings which we considered surplus to requirements. These properties were identified following a review of the estate in accordance with the objectives of the Police Scotland Estate Strategy.
Some of those local consultations have now closed and we are in the process of reviewing the feedback we have received to help inform our decision making and next steps regarding each building.
Our national conversation will continue to run alongside consultations about each building to provide the public, our partners and colleagues with opportunities to contribute their feedback on the progress we have made so far towards our Estate Strategy and how these changes are being experienced by communities.

VR/VER update
A window for applications from eligible staff for voluntary redundancy/voluntary early retirement (VR/VER) was open between 8 January and 9 February 2024.
We are now assessing which roles could be supported for release.
Regular consultation with trade unions is ongoing and our commitment to no compulsory redundancies remains in place.