I AM really sorry for the rank and file officers of Police Scotland. They are being led by senior officers who seem to have been duped or forced by politicians into believing that a national police service is the panacea for policing in this country. The latest statement emanating from the Chief Constable with tacit support from the chairman of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) ("Our aim is to make SPA a visible and effective part of public life", Agenda, The Herald, March 14), is in my opinion, Orwellian speak for "the system is broken and we have no idea how to fix it." Those individuals receive very reasonable salaries to manage Kenny MacAskill's misguided folly. Now they are giving the public 10 weeks to come up with the solutions. This, in more modern speak, is "a consultation process".
I did predict, some five years before it' creation, that Police Scotland would be an operational disaster and that Scottish society was sleepwalking into something that was not in its best interests. Are we not now having something of a nightmare?
Perhaps it would benefit the service, if politicians and those leaders tasked with protecting our communities took a lead from the world of sport. Panels of ex-players analyse and give professional opinions on performances to a wider audience, who are maybe not so well versed on the nuances of a particular sport. Could a small group of ex police officers (of all ranks) who know and understand the culture and complexities of policing, not assist, particularly the SPA and help to alleviate the perplexing situation we are currently facing? (I am not suggesting, for one minute, that this should be done on TV).
I would argue, that while sport is popular, it is not nearly as important as the safety and wellbeing of people, particularly the vulnerable, in Scotland's communities, remote or otherwise.
And please leave the British Transport Police alone, else they will finish in the same situation as Police Scotland – derailed.
Dan Edgar,
Toward View, 31 Ardbeg Road, Rothesay, Isle of Bute.
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