Police are said to be "afraid to go out on duty" on a Scottish island that has slashed overnight cover.

Scotland's police force is trialling a new arrangement on the Isle of Bute whereby officers are now on call rather than on shift from 12am to 8am during the week and from 2am to 8am at weekends. 

Emergency calls are directed to staff at a Glasgow call centre who then alert local officers to respond.

Police Scotland say the revised model, which has reduced the number of shifts from five to three, will increase the number of officers at “key times” and say it is being tested against high demand, when visitor numbers to the island are highest.

Chief Inspector Sam Glasgow said the previous system created "unacceptable risks" for police and is better suited to urban areas where police numbers are bigger.

However, locals say a public meeting held earlier this month with police failed to allay their concerns.

READ MORE: Island on-call police trial 'an open invitation for criminals'

Islander Jann Hurwood said: "They could not give any of the statistics on which they based their decision - they didn't have these details with them.

"They could not answer how much extra time 'on call' rather than 'on duty' added to the time from 999 call to attending an emergency. 

"To be honest they just gave a speech about the welfare of officers being more important than anything else.

"The local sergeant actually said her staff were afraid to go out on duty.

"One resident actually pointed out the police force by its nature involved an element of danger and surely anyone joining the profession surely would understand that. 

READ MORE: Public safety fears as Police Scotland to cut 800 jobs by end of year 

"So if local police were afraid to go out because they felt under-resourced the change would not resolve the underlying issue.

She added: "Residents were sympathetic to concerns about officer welfare, but felt this 'new model' was not the answer, the answer was better resource."

Figures released in 2022 show the number of police in Scotland has reached its lowest level for almost 14 years with almost 700 officers having quit the force in the last year alone. 

Police Scotland had 16,610 full time equivalent (FTE) officers in its ranks at the end of June 2022 – the lowest number since the creation of the single national police force. 

Gary Steele, a retired police sergeant, who spent 17 years in the senior role on the island, has previously warned that the new model is "an open invitation for criminals".

The Bute model is already in operation on Mull but Mr Steele says the bigger island has a different demographic and different challenges. 

He said: “Drugs is as big an issue here as it is anywhere else. We’ve always been fortunate that crimes like break-ins don’t really happen and it doesn’t happen because the police are here. 

“One of the advantages of the island has been that you can’t get off the island until certain times of the day but you’ll now be able to get off before the police start at 8am."

Chief Inspector Glasgow said it was too soon to have any meaningful data on response times.

She said: “We are weeks into trialling an alternative policing model. 

“Emergency and non-emergency calls are still managed in exactly the same way and there is no change to the quality of service we provide to our communities.

"It is worth reiterating that this pilot aims to improve officer numbers at key times and we are running it at a peak time for the island with the influx of visitors to ensure we are testing the model against high demand.”