Frontline policing to be prioritised in ‘shrinking workforce’ – chief constable

Front-line officers’ jobs will be prioritised in a “shrinking workforce”, the chief constable of Police Scotland has said.

Speaking at a Scottish Police Authority meeting on Thursday, Jo Farrell said current financial pressures within the force will lead to fewer staff.

She said officers actively serving in communities around the country would be prioritised.

She referenced a January report by the Auditor General for Scotland and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland which highlighted a number of strengths and weaknesses within Police Scotland.

Ms Farrell cited a point from the report regarding financial constraints, which she acknowledged.

She said: “I know the scale of this challenge, reshaping the workforce against a shrinking real-terms resource base will mean a smaller workforce.

“Front-line services will be prioritised. To do so will unlock capacity by getting more people back to work, deployed on full duties, and freeing up officers from roles which don’t require unwarranted powers.

“Balancing those imperatives against the highly demanding nature of policing is a leadership, culture and resource challenge.”

She also discussed the consequences of releasing prisoners early in response to the country’s high rates of incarceration.

The chief constable said: “By way of illustration, of just under 300 prisoners released under the three tranches of release during November and December last year, 71 individuals are accused of reoffending – around one in four.”

She called for better monitoring of those released from prison early as a means to reducing reoffending through state-of-the-art electronic monitoring systems.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The draft budget provides record funding of more than £1.7 billion for policing in 2026-27 – following record investment which enabled Police Scotland to take on more recruits in the last financial year than at any time since 2013.

“Scotland continues to be a safe place to live, with recorded crime down by half since 1991, homicide levels at their lowest ever recorded level and people feeling safer in their communities. Scotland continues to have more officers per person than England and Wales at 30 to 24.

“Emergency early release (EER) was a necessary and proportionate action to support the safe operation of our prisons, and to protect the wellbeing of prison staff and prisoners.

“No form of reoffending is acceptable and we pay careful attention to those figures. All those released under emergency early release were no more than 180 days from their scheduled release date.”