Police

The Scottish Liberal Democrats have called on the Scottish government to protect the justice budget and enhance community policing after new research found that less than half of violent assaults resulted in a criminal charge being reported to the Crown Office last year. Scottish Liberal Democrat re

Scotland's police service is institutionally racist, its new chief constable has said. Jo Farrell endorsed the statement of her predecessor, Sir Iain Livingstone, that the single force had a racism problem. Before his retirement in May he said that Police Scotland “is institutionally racist an

Views are being sought by the Criminal Justice Committee on a new bill which aims to strengthen public confidence in policing in Scotland and ensure investigations into police misconduct are more transparent and effective. The Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill would require the p

Police Scotland officers are to receive a seven per cent increase to pay and allowances backdated to 1 April 2023. The pay deal for 2023/24 means there has been a cumulative 12.35 per cent increase in police officer pay since 1 April 2022, which mirrors wage growth for the fire service and teachers.

Police Scotland are to stop investigating certain crimes in a new 'pilot scheme' in the North East due to a lack of resources. Where crimes are reported where there is "no associated threat, risk, harm or vulnerability and also no proportionate lines of enquiry for local police officers to investiga

Figures have revealed that Tasers were used on 41 children over the past year by police officers, sparking demands for a ban on the devices in situations involving under-18s. The use of the weapons on children rose by 17 per cent from the previous year, a new report shows.

The Scottish Police Authority has announced that Jo Farrell will be Police Scotland’s next chief constable following Sir Iain Livingstone QPM’s decision to retire this August. She has been chief constable of Durham Constabulary since 2019 having been deputy at Durham since 2016 and havin

Proposed new laws intended to strengthen public confidence in standards of police conduct have been published. The Scottish government’s Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill has been introduced to Holyrood with the aim of ensuring allegations of misconduct are dealt with more

Sir Iain Livingstone, Police Scotland's chief constable, has admitted that the single force is institutionally racist and discriminatory. The revelation follows a review that revealed instances of racism, sexism, and homophobia by active officers. Reports of staff facing repercussions for flagging t

Police Scotland has been ordered to explain why it concluded that there was no crime committed in the case of a former kirk minister involved in defrauding three brothers out of £1 million. The force has been told to review its lack of action by the Police Investigations & Review Commissio

One of Scotland's central police control rooms used a fake system to manipulate response time targets – for eight years. Documents seen by the BBC show that thousands of calls to the Bilston Glen control room were allocated to a fake call sign known as DUMY.

Security forces across the world are increasingly misusing rubber and plastic bullets and other law enforcement weapons to violently suppress peaceful protests, causing horrific injuries and deaths, human rights campaigners have said. In a jointly-produced 48-page report titled My Eye Exploded, Amne

Sir Iain Livingstone is to step down as chief constable of Police Scotland in the summer. He took the role on in 2018 and has been a serving officer since 1992. Sir Iain is responsible for 23,000 officers and staff in what is the second largest police force in the UK.

An independent review of new policing technologies, chaired at Edinburgh Napier University, has suggested statutory codes of practice could be considered to provide greater clarity and safeguards around the future use of live facial recognition and certain artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats have called on Police Scotland to offer reassurances about the speed and robustness of its complaints process as she unveiled new figures showing only a small number of the more than 4,000 complaints made against officers last year results in management action. A freed