Outcome 1: Threats to public safety and wellbeing are resolved by a proactive and responsive police service

Challenges and opportunities

Society is changing. We find ourselves moving at an ever-increasing pace from the physical to the digital world; a move that creates opportunities for new and complex crime types. This shift also affects traditional crime, much of which now has a digital element.

To protect people effectively, Police Scotland will evolve, sharpening its focus on keeping people safe from harm, whilst embracing innovative technologies and partnerships. Our approach will help Police Scotland to contribute to wider efforts to tackle societal issues such as violence against women and girls, as well as work to transform the justice system to deliver trauma-informed and victim-focused services within a wider framework of a rights based policing approach.

To achieve these aims Police Scotland must work with partners to work effectively to maximise the impact of limited resources. This will include community planning partnerships, which bring together local public services. Police Scotland will continue to be a key contributor to local joint planning and delivery, as well as to national cross-sectoral partnerships, helping drive a shift to prevention and early intervention across services. An improved balance of responsibilities across public services will allow Police Scotland to maintain a focus on its core responsibilities.

Today’s challenges

Crime increasingly features digital elements and the sophisticated cyber capability of criminals is beginning to outstrip our capacity to respond effectively

Picking up demand as a result of funding shortages elsewhere limits our ability to respond where policing can make the greatest impact Vulnerability, mental ill-health and substance misuse issues continue to impact on the wellbeing of individuals and communities

Policing in future

We prevent and respond to crime in both the physical and digital world, protecting people from harm

Innovative partnerships, our use of cutting edge expertise and technology mean we are at the forefront of the response to cybercrime

We reduce the likelihood of crime occurring by identifying at risk individuals and connecting them to the services they need To achieve this outcome, Police Scotland will:

Keep people safe in the physical and digital world

Design services jointly to tackle complex public safety and wellbeing challenges

Support policing through proactive prevention

Keep people safe in the physical and digital world

As Police Scotland adapts to meet the challenges of a changing world, there must be a focus on the remit of policing as set out in the legislation, which is:

Responding to and preventing crime

Protecting vulnerable people from those who wish to harm them By renewing this focus there is an opportunity to:

Reshape the organisation to meet the challenges faced in both the physical and digital world

Redefine the relationships that Police Scotland has with its partners to better support vulnerable people and the victims of crime

Address acute and atypical threats

Police Scotland has always had a clear organisational commitment towards tackling violence against women and girls, with a number of areas including rape and sexual crime, domestic abuse and child protection, recognised and designated as force priorities. However in light of a series of high-profile events, giving rise to widely reported public concern across the United Kingdom, Police Scotland recognises the need to continually review and improve its approaches.

Police Scotland is committed to working with partners to build an approach which recognises the impact of broader societal issues, the need for attitudinal and cultural change and seeks to inspire and influence change through education, intervention, prevention and the pursuit of perpetrators

Placing people at the heart of policing services and ensuring we listen and act upon feedback shared with us will be critical. Recognising the prevalence of trauma and adversity means that Police Scotland can ensure it can identify where people are affected by trauma, reduce re-traumatisation and support their recovery.

Reflecting upon Police Scotland’s internal, organisational culture will be central to the future policing approach. Building and promoting a supportive and inclusive working environment where difference is promoted and valued will contribute to improvements to service delivery, meaning that Police Scotland can better understand and respond to the needs of the people and communities it serves.

This work will augment work already underway to better understand the nature and scale of Hate Crime in Scotland and deliver the appropriate mechanisms in place to engage with people and communities to ensure they have the confidence to come forward and report their experiences.

Developments in technology are creating both challenges and opportunities for policing. Criminals are exploiting new technologies at an ever-increasing pace, and a growing number of traditional crimes now feature a digital element. The volume and importance of data is also increasing – as are the opportunities and risks associated with its use.

Work to implement Police Scotland’s pioneering Cyber Strategy will continue. Police Scotland’s Policing in a Digital World Programme supports the organisational mission to bring about the changes necessary to become a centre of excellence in digital and cyber policing, merging together the cyber strategy implementation plan and cyber capability programmes.

The programme sets out a clear pathway and underlies Police Scotland’s commitment to working with partners such as Scottish Government and international law enforcement and share expertise across sectors. Police Scotland will continue to develop partnerships with online providers, industry experts, academia and other policing and criminal justice partners, including the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. In doing so Police Scotland will seek to develop and incorporate the technology and data required to prevent and disrupt online criminality in all its forms; keeping pace with the digital threat and increasing policing’s presence in the virtual world.

As Police Scotland continues to develop its digital fluency, cyber skills and resilience will be embedded into the organisation, providing the policing workforce with industry-leading training to enhance the investigation of online crime in all its forms, whilst complementing existing skillsets. To ensure Police Scotland has the right people in the right place, flexible pathways into the organisation will be created to attract, recruit and retain the cutting edge expertise required.

Post-pandemic recovery efforts, environmental concerns, economic challenges and the conflict in Ukraine are global issues contributing to existing political and social uncertainty within Scotland and across the United Kingdom. People and communities will continue to be impacted in a number of ways for the foreseeable future.

Police Scotland is committed to understanding how these issues affect the people and communities it serves and how services and approaches can be amended to meet new and emerging needs.

As communities change, Police Scotland will adapt both visibility and accessibility, operating across both physical and virtual environments and increasingly extending policing presence into the digital world. Throughout, Police Scotland will work with communities to ensure people understand and are involved in any changes, wherever possible.

Design services jointly to tackle complex public safety and wellbeing challenges

Keeping people safe will always remain the key focus for Police Scotland, however it is acknowledged that the police service is not always the right service to provide people with the help they need. Police Scotland has often absorbed the impact of wider public sector financial challenges and is taking responsibility in situations where the police service is not the most appropriate service to respond. This position is unsustainable in the long term and detracts from the ability to intervene effectively at the critical end of risk and harm.

Public services in Scotland have a collective responsibility to improve the wellbeing of the communities they serve. Working more closely together to address the growing and increasingly complex demand on services is imperative. Police Scotland is committed to working with other organisations and the public to ensure support is provided and that people’s needs are being met. The most effective way to achieve positive outcomes for people is by engaging with them to understand their experiences, ensuring they have a meaningful say in the decisions that affect them and the services designed across policing.

Police Scotland will continue to develop its understanding of the issues that impact negatively on the safety and wellbeing of communities and increase the likelihood of people coming into contact with the police.

By remaining vigilant to the triggers that lead people towards criminality and other forms of harm, Police Scotland will identify ‘at risk’ individuals and work with partners to ensure there are clear pathways to appropriate support.

Police Scotland will work constructively with partners across the public, private and third sectors to support Scotland’s emerging public health approach. An understanding of our respective roles and responsibilities requires to be developed, to provide people with the support they need. Police Scotland will share information and insights, in an appropriate and ethical manner, whilst coordinating resources to target the persistent issues that impact on wellbeing and resilience. Investment here will reduce demand and financial pressures across the system in the medium to longer term.

Support policing through proactive prevention

Police Scotland will maintain a key role in supporting vulnerable people and communities in Scotland. By working with partners, preventative approaches will be developed that focus on early intervention, early resolution and diversion to address enduring problems. This will help to build resilience within some of the most vulnerable communities in Scotland; improving outcomes and reducing cost across the wider public service.

Greater investment here will allow Police Scotland to focus our resources on partnership, prevention and early intervention, enabling effective solutions to be discovered. Unique policing insights will be used to demonstrate a clear case for change, building a solid evidence base for targeted investment in preventative measures to address vulnerability, violence, mental ill-health and substance misuse.

Better use will be made of data to inform improvements in policing, and our approach to working with partners. Realising the benefits of shared data and analysis, in line with data protection obligations, will inform a collaborative approach and ensure policing’s impact is optimised. By influencing here the scale of successful projects will be increased, and support targeted towards the most vulnerable people and communities.

Preventative work will be a key feature in the approach to online criminality. Police Scotland will continue to raise awareness of the digital threat amongst us, in order to develop resilience, reduce vulnerability and the likelihood of repeat victimisation. Police Scotland will work with organisations in both the public, third and private sectors to develop their understanding and response. Working collaboratively will ensure that products and services are secure by design, reducing opportunities for criminals to exploit vulnerabilities.