THE link between police and communities is broken and Police Scotland must be made more accountable according to a Labour Party review.

Two years after it was set up, Police Scotland is lacking in transparency and requires greater scrutiny the review found.

Graeme Pearson, Labour’s Justice Spokesman, who is a former Strathclyde Police deputy chief constable spoke to officers, staff, the public and community groups around the country for his Review of Policing in Scotland.

He said the single force needs a “shake-up” to counter the centralisation of services that has occurred.

The report comes after several controversial incidents involving the police that have led to concerns being raised over aspects of the operation and governance arrangements of the new force.

The death of Lamara Bell and John Yuill following a crash on the M9 when a call from a member of the public was not responded to was described by Mr Pearson as “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.

The police response was criticised after Sheku Bayoh died in custody following being restrained during an incident in Kirkcaldy and many communities had been angry at armed officers responding to routine calls.

Mr Pearson said: “During my meetings across the country, local people told me that the link between their communities and bobbies on the beat has been lost, despite the hard work and dedication of frontline officers.

“Those officers feel the breakdown too. The recent Police Scotland staff survey reported that officers feel they are losing touch with local people because of the ‘one-size-fits-all’ policing model.”

Mr Pearson has issued a set of recommendations to strengthen accountability and performance.

The recommendations include improving Parliamentary oversight with a committee of the Parliament responsible for the preparedness of police, fire and rescue, ambulance and coast guard.

Resources must meet local needs with a resource audit to identify accurately the staff and resource allocation for each 'community'.

Building a link between local committees and the SPA is recommended with Convenors of local committees given a right of an audience at the Scottish Police Authority board.

Members of local committees should be trained to properly hold Police Scotland to account.

The SPA has to be more robust to scrutinise genuine governance in order to ensure high levels of public accountability for police activities and budgets.

IT infrastructure must be urgently reviewed and complaint handling made clearer with the Police Investigation and Review Commissioner (PIRC) given the sole responsibility for the conduct of investigations alleging misconduct and criminality affecting the service.

The review also called for an acknowledgement from the Scottish Government and the Scottish Police Authority that the absence of a full business case before the commencement of Police Scotland has created significant problems when taking forward a reform of this magnitude.

Mr Pearson added: “Two years on from its creation, Police Scotland needs a shake up so that power once again lies with local decision makers and we get back to the kind of community policing that made Scotland the envy of the world at one time.”

The Scottish Government rejected the criticism and said the foundations of policing were sound.

A spokesman for Justice Secretary Michael Matheson, said: "Policing in Scotland is built on strong foundations and Graeme Person's attack is hypocritical given that Labour fully backed the creation of a single police force in the face of Tory cuts from Westminster.

"His claims regarding the business case for Police Scotland is also wrong - there was a full outline business case for police reform with significant stakeholder input which was published in its entirety, and which was also backed by cross-party support.

"The fundamentals of policing in Scotland are sound and under this SNP government crime has fallen to a 41-year low, supported by the 1,000 extra officers that we have delivered."