Prevention, problem solving and proactivity

Motorcycle safety
Motorcyclists are one of the most vulnerable road users and we are committed to improving road safety. Our annual motorcycle safety campaign is underway and aims to raise awareness of motorcyclists and reduce casualties.
The campaign runs from March to September, covering a period that sees the highest number of motorcyclists killed or seriously injured. Engagement and enforcement activity will take place using both marked and unmarked police vehicles, including officers from our National Motorcycle Unit. We are part of a crucial partnership approach to road safety and coordinated work with Road Safety Scotland, local authorities and road safety charities is a key part of the campaign.
One example of our engagement activity is Police Scotland, along with road safety partners in the North of Scotland, are holding courses for motorcyclists to help them ride responsibly and reduce the number of collisions.
Rider Refinement North is a one-day course that will take place between April 2024 and September 2024 between Highlands and Islands, Grampian and Tayside areas. It is the only course of its kind in Scotland.
Led by police motorcyclists and accompanied by an observer from the Institute of Advance Motorists, the course will look at key risk factors and provide riders with the knowledge and skills to be safer.
Partnership patrols in Moray
Partners from the Moray Community Safety Partnership, including Moray Community Wardens, Elgin BID, Arrows, Aberlour Youth Point, Police Scotland Youth Volunteers and Street Pastors, undertook joint patrols during April to provide community reassurance, engage with young people and prevent offending following reports of anti-social behaviour.
Funded by the Moray Community Justice Partnership, the patrols sought to build relationships and curb anti-social behaviour.
Policing Together and working with communities
Our Policing Together strategy was published in September 2022. Our Policing Together programme is founded on our values of integrity, fairness, respect and a commitment to upholding human rights. Policing Together co-ordinates and drives service wide action across four strategic pillars - leadership; training; professionalism and prevention; and communications.
Leadership
We invested in a tailored Your Leadership Matters training programme for 5,691 police leaders to give them the support, skills and capability to build an inclusive working environment where all colleagues can thrive, reach their potential and deliver for the public.
Chief Officers have sought the lived experiences of colleagues in Police Scotland, including through Talk Truth to Power sessions and taken action on their feedback, for example changing probationer training to include more opportunities for individualised learning. A Race Equality and Cultural Heritage (REACH) Group has been established, following colleague feedback, to promote positive self-development, career development and talent management opportunities for minority ethnic officers and staff.
Policing has listened to different voices from the diverse communities we serve, including through academic work commissioned jointly with the Authority and with the Scottish Institute for Police Research, about how policing’s value can be for everyone. We’ve also held less formal engagement to seek out diverse perspectives and build and maintain relationships, including sessions I’ve participated in with key individuals from religious and minority ethnicity communities.
Training
A new equality, diversity and inclusion online training package has been completed by 99% of colleagues across the Service providing a baseline level of awareness and understanding of the Equality Act (2010). In February, a second module building on the initial learning with a focus on our values and learning around institutional discrimination was introduced. These modules are supported by a programme of empower hour sessions around institutional discrimination, unconscious bias and becoming an ally.
Professionalism and Preventions
We’ve brought a relentless focus to standards, with a month long focus on each of the 10 legislative standards of professional behaviour, bringing attention to each standard, explaining what they mean, why they are significant and why it is critical officers adhere to them, along with real examples of behaviours which can breach them.
We’ve brought more transparency to conduct trends and outcomes through a quarterly newsletter called 'The Standard', designed to raise awareness and provide advice which prevents officers and staff becoming the subject of a complaint or conduct/disciplinary investigation. The Standard includes outcomes of Gross Misconduct hearings where the officer has either been dismissed or resigned prior to attendance at a scheduled hearing.
Communications
We have used our communications platforms to share messages from our inclusion calendar, which celebrates and recognises cultural and religious events important to our people and the communities we serve.
We’ve brought an accessible approach to communications so messages can be used by as many people as possible, including the roughly one in five people in the UK who have a long-term illness, impairment, or disability, which means they may face challenges in accessing communications. This includes those with impaired vision; motor difficulties; cognitive impairments or learning disabilities; deafness or impaired hearing.