by Almost 25,000 crimes a year in Scotland will not be investigated under a controversial SNP-backed policing reform.
Police Scotland said a pilot in the north-east of Scotland, where almost five per cent of crimes were not allocated to an officer, was deemed successful and would now be rolled out across the country.
The force said the plans to extend the “proportionate” approach would free up time for frontline officers, whose numbers have fallen significantly in recent years due to funding pressures.
However, critics described the pilot as police waving the white flag at criminals and in contrast to the approach taken in England, where police forces have been told they must investigate every a crime such as theft. Senior officers said their plan had the support of SNP ministers, and that policing was a devolved issue.
Asked whether the SNP government was aware of the plans and supported them, assistant chief constable Emma Bond said: “Yes. They are fully aware.
“Just to reinforce this, it’s not a policy not to investigate, this is about us having a victim-centred approach to assessing calls, seeing if there are avenues to investigate or not .
“Even if a filed incident occurs, and we don’t have active lines of inquiry, we will reopen and investigate further on any new information received.
“When something is closed it doesn’t mean it might not be revisited.”
Criminal damage cannot be considered
Although there is no list of offenses that officers will no longer investigate, she suggested that some thefts and cases of criminal damage are among those likely to fall under the new scheme. The value of an item will not be a factor in deciding whether to allocate it.
Examples of crimes not investigated by an officer in the north-east pilot include the theft of garden ornaments, Police Scotland said.
The scheme means that when members of the public report crime, it will not always be allocated to a frontline officer, unless a call center worker identifies any potential lines of inquiry.
Under the trial in the Aberdeen area some 472 crime reports – 4.6 per cent of those made over a 12-week period – were “directly filed” meaning they were officially recorded but not actively investigated by a police officer.
Police Scotland’s projections indicate that an estimated 24,242 crimes will not be allocated to a frontline officer per year, which would otherwise be the case, once the scheme is implemented across the country. They said this would save 136,376 “investigative hours” of police officers which could be spent more effectively elsewhere.
“The proportionate response to the crime process is not a no-investigation policy,” Ms Bond said. “We are committed to investigating the crime.
“Our evaluation recommends that this process be rolled out across the rest of the service and we plan to do this on a phased basis with ongoing engagement and assessment.
“All crime reports are subject to an individual risk assessment of threat, harm, risk, vulnerability and for proportionate lines of investigation and evidence, and that will not change.
“If there are no lines of inquiry that can be followed, we should be clear about that with the person who contacted us.
“The public will be notified of the progress of their report more quickly, rather than waiting days for officers to contact to inform them of the same outcome.”
Russell Findlay MSP, the Scottish Guardian’s shadow justice secretary, said: “The rolling out of this dangerous scheme formalises the SNP’s surrender of criminals as official policing policy. That’s not what hard-working officials signed up for.
“The SNP’s severe cuts and their already weak justice agenda mean that officer numbers are at their lowest level since 2008 and most crimes go unreported.
“If you do anything in response to thousands of crimes it will betray law abiding Scots. This is a good day for criminals and it will only lead to more crime on our streets.”
Police Scotland argued in a survey that there was public support for the policy, although the results showed that a significant minority, 27 per cent of Scots, said they would no longer feel confident reporting a crime to the police if the plan in place nationally.
A Police Scotland assessment said the plan would help maintain effective policing for our communities in the face of funding cuts. The number of frontline officers fell to the equivalent of 16,262 at the end of 2023, the lowest level for 15 years.
Although the force denied the policy was being introduced as a result of funding cuts, a report said: “Taking a proportionate approach to crime will reduce demand, increase capacity and help allow Police Scotland to continue to high quality service provision. responding to the growing and increasingly complex needs of the individual and the community, within a tightening financial environment”.
