Prevention, problem solving and proactivity

INTERPOL General Assembly
At the start of November, Glasgow hosted the four-day long 92nd INTERPOL General Assembly on behalf of the UK Government and the Home Office.

The conference brought together around a thousand senior figures, including 65 heads of police, ministers and senior leaders. This included His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, and the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who I also welcomed on a visit to the Scottish Crime Campus at Gartcosh where we met with on-site partners to discuss our collaborative work.

The conference had a significant focus on the global efforts taking place to make communities and countries as safe as possible, including addressing the harms caused by the international drugs trade, the misery caused by people trafficking, and the ongoing threats and dangers of cyber-enabled crime.

The event also offered the opportunity for Police Scotland to further strengthen our links with major collaborative partners, including the National Crime Agency across all levels of our operational activity.

In addition, the International Development and Innovation Unit took part in the INTERPOL exhibition at the Scottish Event Campus during the General Assembly. We have a strong international reputation for our delivery of innovative training to overseas police services, both through undertaking in-country deployments and hosting delegations at our Tulliallan headquarters and beyond.
The exhibition offered an excellent opportunity to showcase our expertise and forge extended bonds with law enforcement agencies who may wish to work with us, as well as our involvement in the renowned Global Policing Exchange programme.

That Guy Campaign
Police Scotland’s new THAT GUY sexual crime prevention campaign, a key deliverable of our Violence Against Women and Girls strategy, launched on Monday, 28 October.
The campaign continues the theme of supporting men to reflect on their own, their friends and relatives, behaviour towards women.
The campaign has already received significant coverage over broadcast, digital, radio and print media. In just over two weeks the campaign advert has over one million views.

16 Days
Police Scotland will be supporting 16 Days of Activism, an international campaign that encourages action and awareness of all forms of violence against women and girls. The campaign will run from 25 November - 10 December and is a key deliverable under both Police Scotland’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and the work of the Sex Equality and Tackling Misogyny Delivery Group.
Throughout the 16 days we will highlight the prevention work we are doing as part of gender-based violence focussing on a range of topics including domestic abuse, stalking, sextortion and the domestic abuse disclosure scheme.
Content will feature on our social channels alongside a number of events taking place across the country.

Forth Valley domestic abuse week of action
A week of action to trace and arrest named domestic abuse suspects in Forth Valley in September and October resulted in 15 arrests for a range of offences including rape, sexual assault and Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act charges.
Officers from the divisional public protection unit worked with colleagues in CID, response policing and the domestic abuse violence reduction unit to carry out this focused week of action.
Victims were kept updated and referrals made to local support services.
This focused action brings together skills and experience from across the division. It encourages our teams to work cohesively, share knowledge and skillset while putting focus on our highest risk offenders who are outstanding.
This intensification allows us to focus our investigative capacity, to tackle potential backlogs and reduce workloads which also contributes to officer wellbeing and effective service delivery.

Policing Together and working with communities
I remain committed to building an anti-racist, anti-discriminatory, Service which better reflects and represents all our communities.
Earlier this year, I appointed ACC Catriona Paton to lead an enhanced Policing Together Division which combined the internally focused activities of the original strategy with more external service delivery, as we continue to drive action for meaningful change.
I am grateful for the work done to refresh our approach, to better understand the progress made under the Policing Together programme and to maintain and develop effective work in this vital area.

Act Don't React
Act Don’t React is a training programme which puts academic research from behavioural science into practice. It enables officers to understand human behaviour, what drives and triggers it, and how they can use the training to positively influence other people’s behaviour, as well as their own.
The training is designed to help officers learn how best to engage, communicate and positively influence colleagues and members of the public, so that all our interactions can reach their best outcome to keep everyone safe and increase trust in policing.
Piloted in J Division, the programme was delivered to probationers over a two-year period and extensive evaluation revealed that there was a significant reduction in use of force, injuries and complaints against Act Don’t React trained officers.
A train the trainer model will enable the programme to be delivered to officers across the organisation and a number of probationers in Ayrshire division have been receiving the training during November.

Anti-racist learning
We are testing a programme of face-to-face anti-racist learning ahead of plans to deliver it to 1,000 officers and staff in the coming months.
Unity Through Learning is an in-person one-day session by specialist diversity training team, Mission Diverse, and a train the trainer model will be used to embed the learning across Police Scotland.

Black History Month
Throughout October we teamed up with SEMPER Scotland to celebrate Black History Month to recognise the enormous contribution Black and Minority Ethnic citizens bring to communities across Scotland.
We benefited from contributions from our colleagues with a series of events highlighting their achievements, pride in their culture and what the month means to them.
I addressed an event hosted at our headquarters to mark the end of Black History Month, where we heard from a variety of speakers who provided valuable insight into some of the challenges and further work required to drive an anti-racist, anti-discriminatory agenda.
I also shared some of the tangible action and progress we have been making, providing that assurance that we are absolutely committed to building a better and more inclusive organisation.

Community and faith leaders engagement event
As part of our continued efforts to build and maintain relationships with all our diverse communities, along with other officers and staff, I met key individuals from religious and minority ethnicity communities at Dalmarnock police office, Glasgow, on Wednesday, 13 November.
This important session was an opportunity to discuss recent policing developments as well as gaining a better understanding of the issues which impact them most. ACC Paton also provided an update on the work our Policing Together programme is doing to build an effective and inclusive service.

Disability History Month
We are supporting Disability History Month between 14 November and 20 December. Police Scotland’s officers and staff are drawn from our communities and we greatly value our colleagues who are neurodiverse, have disabilities and caring responsibilities – a significant proportion and an important part of our Service. As an organisation, we work to create a supportive and inclusive environment where everyone can thrive.
Throughout Disability History Month, and as part of the Policing Together Inclusion calendar, Police Scotland; The Scottish Police Authority and the Scottish Police Disability and Carers Association will be supporting UK Disability History Month by raising awareness of the guidance and support available to staff and officers.
In addition, we are sharing the lived experiences of our colleagues with disabilities, and information on how officers and staff can get involved in Disability History Month.
We are encouraging our staff to take time to drop in and support their colleagues as they talk about their lived experiences; the difficulties they have faced; some of the potential solutions in addition to sign posting and the provision of wider peer support.

Mental Health Taskforce
As previously reported, Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs is leading Police Scotland's work to ensure members of the public who are in mental health crisis get the care and support they need and deserve from the agency best able to provide it while allowing officers to respond to core police work.
We continue to work closely with partners including the Authority, health colleagues, and the Scottish Government and we've established a mental health taskforce to drive work in this priority area at pace.

Mental Health Pathway - Care for Mental Health Award
The Mental Health Pathway provides people experiencing mental health crisis or distress with earlier access to the right care, while also reducing emergency service deployments and officer time spent at hospitals.
It enables staff within our Contact, Command and Control (C3) Division to identify callers who would benefit from early intervention from mental health practitioners, rather than attendance by the police, and refer them to the Mental Health Hub at NHS 24.
To date, 96% of C3 personnel (1550 individuals) have been trained on the referral process and 99% of staff confirmed they felt confident making referrals following their training. Since its introduction in August 2020, the Mental Health Pathway has resulted in 10,611 referrals to NHS 24 via C3. This has allowed 54,328 officer hours to be redirected to other duties.
The Mental Health Pathway was announced as the winner of the Care for Mental Health Award at the Scottish Health Awards 2024, which took place in Edinburgh on Thursday, 7 November.

Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day
On Sunday, 10 November, I represented Police Scotland at a National Remembrance Service on Sunday at St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, in recognition of those who served in the armed forces and died during conflict.
Officers, staff and volunteers, including the Police Scotland Youth Volunteers joined our communities across the country on Remembrance Sunday. On Armistice Day, officers and staff observed a two-minute silence at 11am, where duty allowed.
Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day is an important period of reflection and recognition of the contribution that veterans, serving members of the armed forces and those who lost their life in combat have made.
It is right that the Police Scotland family joins together to pay our respects and give thanks to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.