Public faith in policing will be undermined if wrongdoers feel they can avoid a night in the cells, writes Record View.
The most basic function of the police is to keep the public safe by detecting and preventing crime. Not everyone arrested by officers needs to be temporarily locked up at a local station.
But to keep communities safe there is a clear need to remove some criminals from the streets when they are arrested. This means having a custody suite available for use.
Speak to any off-duty, rank-and-file officer, and they’ll likely tell you that’s easier said than done. Three times last year, the cells at Greenock police station were out of action.
That meant officers were forced to make time-consuming return journeys to Clydebank or Govan, where custody suites were available.
Many members of the public will likely be surprised that Police Scotland now opens new stations with no cells at all – Ayr being one prominent example.
The result, according to the Scottish Police Federation, is officers being discouraged from making arrests because there is no room to detain people.
Police Scotland say they are simply making use of other sanctions like fixed penalties. But opposition MSPs insist there is a problem with a lack of capacity to detain criminals in our police stations.
The situation has been exacerbated by the dozens of police stations which have been closed since the old regional constabularies were merged in 2013.
Police Scotland must take a long, hard look at its spending priorities. Top of the list should be ensuring there is space available in police stations to hold potentially violent offenders.
Public faith in policing will be badly undermined if wrongdoers feel they can act as they please and still avoida night in the cells.
Back to school
Nicola Sturgeon famously said she wanted to be judged on education. But instead the former first minister is now using public appearances to decry anyone who has the temerity to question whether pupils are really being given the best schooling possible.
The data doesn’t lie. The attainment gap between the richest and poorest pupils remains stubbornly high.
The gold-standard Pisa report, which compares educational outcomes around the world, showed a clear decline among average pupil attainment in Scots schools between 2018 and 2022 – when Sturgeon was in charge.
The Covid pandemic between 2020 and 2021 had a devastating impact on schools and young people in particular. But that doesn’t explain why Scotland now lags behind England in international league tables.
John Swinney and his government should be offering solutions to these problems, not resorting to excuses like Sturgeon.
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