Nearly 40 per cent of Scots think Police Scotland’s service is inferior to its predecessor forces

A poll carried out by The Sunday Post found that 38 per cent of people think the service offered by the single force has worsened following the amalgamation of the eight former police forces in 2013.

15 per cent of respondents thought the single force offered a better service.

The Survation poll of 1,000 people, made this month, asked those surveyed to rate the quality of Police Scotland’s service.

16 per cent said the current service was much poorer, while 22 per cent said it was only slightly poorer than the previous regional system.

Only 4 per cent said the single force offered a much better service and 11 per cent said it was slightly better.

About a third, 30 per cent, said there has been no change in the quality of the service, while the remainder were unsure.

Liberal Democrat justice spokeswoman Alison McInnes said: “This poll of public opinion is a damning indictment of the SNP’s rushed and ill-thought-out policing reforms.

“Police counters have closed their doors to the public, armed police have attended routine duties, the use of stop and search increased unabated and that is only the tip of the iceberg.”

“The SNP government should apologise to the people of Scotland for their ill-conceived power grab, which has come at such a cost to local communities.”

Labour’s justice spokesman Hugh Henry said: “The public still trusts our police officers, but confidence in senior management is being stretched to the limit with this shambles.

“When the most senior officers in the country keep changing their story on an important issue like stop and search and have to apologise for inaccurate statements, then the public must be left wondering what can be believed.”

Deputy chief constable Rose Fitzpatrick (pictured) pointed out the majority surveyed “were either as content or more content with Police Scotland than the previous eight legacy forces”.

She said: “Between January and December 2014, almost 16,000 people who contacted us to report crimes or incidents took part in our user satisfaction survey.

“More than 83 per cent of respondents expressed satisfaction with how their incident was handled; almost 79 per cent stated their confidence level in Police Scotland was high or very high.”

In addition, those surveyed were also asked to rate the performance of the police watchdog, the Scottish Police Authority.

A mere three per cent said the watchdog was performing its duties very well while an additional 18 per cent said was performing fairly well.

13 per cent said the SPA was performing fairly badly, while five per cent said the SPA was doing very badly.