This week we’ve had an example of the differing views there are within the police in Scotland about the prospect of serious budget cuts.

Pat Shearer, chief constable of Dumfries and Galloway and President of ACPOS, said,

“The idea of the universal police service for all belongs to a time when resources were plentiful.  We have to accept that a lot of the public can look after themselves.  When times get hard you really have to target resources. A gold-plated service is no longer appropriate and we’ll have to stop doing some of the things we are doing at the moment of have done in the past.”

Mr Shearer continued that it would be “folly” to guarantee the number of beat officers will not fall.

Rab Milligan, Vice Chairman of the Scottish Police Federation, denied that there was a rift between ACPOS and the Federation but said,

“We realise what the current economic situation in Scotland is like and we are not against cuts per-se, but what we are against is cuts to officer numbers.  The first duty of any government is safety and security and any drop in officer numbers would damage that. We are ready to join chief constables and others to discuss efficiencies in relation to court duties, back office functions, shared services and collaborations but we do not accept that cuts to officer numbers are inevitable.”