How Scotland's policing methods are impressing the world

“You wouldn't be human if you didn’t,” he said. After all, Kerr - a police officer, not a politician - was contesting his first election. “It was really interesting, not an experience I had ever had before, a novelty. You are dealing with 194 other countries. It was by no means a given that I’d be chosen.”

But Kerr was elected, as one of Europe’s three representatives on the executive committee of the organisation which - in theory at least - co-ordinates the work of police services right around the world.

The poll, which took place in Istanbul at the end of November, thrust a Scottish officer in to the very front line of global police diplomacy.

For Kerr, his achievement represents a significant vote of confidence in Police Scotland, and this country’s traditions of law enforcement.

His election, however, comes at an extraordinary sensitive tine for international police co-operation.

Crime has globalised like never before.

However, Scotland and the rest of the UK find themselves outside the core of Europol, the EU’s crime-fighting body, with its state-of-the-art intelligence-sharing and joint investigation teams.

Chiefs have coyly described this as “sub-optimal” - though some of the damage has been mitigated.

However, Brexit means British forces, though they maintain some links with Europe, now rely more on Interpol. Yet at the same time Lyon-based global organisation is facing questions about its own legitimacy and direction. Also elected in Istanbul, alongside Kerr, was a new Interpol president, Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi, an Emirati general accused of torture. And there are longstanding concerns over the abuse of Red Notices, Interpol’s most wanted alert system. Democrats warn authoritarians - such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin - are using the scheme to pursue their critics.

Kerr therefore is not just representing Scottish, British and European policing on what is essentially the oversight board of Interpol, he also finds himself standing up for a rights-based law enforcement.

How can democracies be sure that Interpol is not abused? “The best way to do that is to be involved from the inside, to be involved at a senior executive level, to be involved in the executive committee with sets the strategic direction, which holds the Secretary General to account,” said Kerr. “That’s a really important check and balance.”

The DCC cites the mantra of an old boss who said “trust is good, supervision is better.”.

There are reforms underway at Interpol. Kerr stressed the new work on controlling files, and the need to “respect rights no matter what part of the world you are in.”

He added: “Of course, there’s always a risk, there are 195 different countries and a range of regimes and some countries may at times attempt to use the process for their own purposes, so checks and balances are incredibly important and are working well at the moment.”

So why did Kerr get elected? The DCC prefers to focus on his success as one for his force rather than himself. But his background is one of enforcing the law in politically contested and difficult places. He was 27 years in Northern Ireland before moving to sensitive and difficult roles in the NCA and Police Scotland. An international policing electorate will have seen that as a solid CV.

“I think two things played very heavily in my personal favour,” Kerr explained, citing feedback and voting patterns. “First was that they wanted to get in people who were both very operationally experienced and used to a politically challenging environment. I was the head of counterterrorism in Northern Ireland, which was was a challenging and politically sensitive role for obvious reasons. But also as a Director of the National Crime Agency, I was responsible for the UK’s international response to organised immigration crime, modern slavery and human trafficking.

“So I've done I've done a lot of work over a significant number of years with Interpol.

“Those relationships and that knowledge matter.”

“The second reason I was elected was that the reputation in Scottish policing preceded me and made things significantly easier.”

The national force was set up less than a decade ago. But it has, Kerr argued, made an international mark.

“A lot of attendees were aware of the style and tone of Scottish policing over the last couple of years, especially during the pandemic.”

The policing of Cop26 too, he said, had won plaudits. “People were very well aware of how successful it was. International colleagues were very interested in how we managed a significant number of attendees and world leaders in and event that last nearly two weeks, and how we managed a significant number of marches bang in the middle of a busy urban environment and did that with less than a hundred arrests.”

Policing in some other parts of the world is in crisis. In the United States there have been questions about the very legitimacy of law enforcement agencies and demands for services to be defunded.

That, suddenly, is making some of the old traditions of Scottish policing quite trendy internationally.

Kerr contrasted how Scottish officers policed corona restrictions with colleagues elsewhere, even in the UK. “I think the mindset of Scotland was different from the outset. I think our understanding of our role being as being about safety and well-being gave us a different starting position in our relationship with the community.”

“As Iain Livingstone, the chief constable, keeps saying we get our legitimacy from the consent of the people.

“That mantra of policing in the UK, and particularly in Scotland, has never been more important than policing during an unprecedented pandemic.

“But there is no point just saying it, you have to do something about it.”

Police Scotland put extra officers out in communities offering reassurance to the public. But those officers were, the DCC stressed, given briefings “in part different to some of the briefings colleagues in England and Wales got”.

“We did not know how quickly regulations would change or how long the pandemic would last,” he said. “But we knew we had to trust the common sense and discretion of our cops. So we created a policy-light environment and asked officers to show a bit of compassion as they go about their duties. That made a massive difference.”

Kerr’s day job is running local policing in Scotland. As he spoke of his officers working during the pandemic, he voice filled with pride. But there is a practical side to the new man on Interpol too. Police Scotland did not leave discretion to chance: it also set up a human rights watchdog to keep track of Covid policing. Trust, as Kerr’s old boss said, is good. Supervision is better. And that applies at home and abroad.