By Professor John Robertson OBA

The cringe ‘Scottish’ media is full of fake news on police officer numbers at the moment.

The true facts are, from open, transparent, official, checkable statistics, in Police officer quarterly strength statistics: 30 September 2024, published today is:

Police officer numbers increased by 220 FTE officers (+1.4%) in the last quarter from 30 June 2024

This is an increase of 193 FTE police officers (+1.2%) from the 16,234 FTE police officers recorded at 31 March 2007

^{https://www.gov.scot/publications/police-officer-quarterly-strength-statistics-30-september-2024/}

From indeed, the Scottish average salary is £40 926 and the English average is £34 807 making the average Scottish police officer £6 000, 15%, better off.^{1, 2}

Starting salaries?

Scotland – £30 039.³

England? Between £28,551 and £29,907.⁴

Crime rate?

Scotland – 55 crimes per 1 000 people

England – 89.7

Staffing to deal with crime?

Scotland – 316 officers per 100 000 people.

England – 228.

So, Scotland is 27.8% better staffed.

Sources:

1. https://uk.indeed.com/cmp/Police-Scotland/salaries/Police-Officer
2. https://uk.indeed.com/career/police-officer/salaries
3. https://www.scotland.police.uk/about-us/finance/pay-and-grading-structure/
4. https://careers.northumbria.police.uk/police-officer/benefits/#:~:text=With%20a%20top%20salary%20of,Superintendent%20%C2%A399%2C612%20%E2%80%93%20%C2%A3111%2C117
5. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1030625/crime-rate-uk/#:~:text=The%20crime%20rate%20in%20the,just%2052.3%20by%202021/22.
6. https://policeprofessional.com/news/england-and-wales-have-fewer-police-officers-than-any-major-european-nation/