Today in the Observer:

Images of arrested people who were innocent of any crimes are still being stored in a police database that may be used for facial recognition purposes, an official report has warned.

In 2012, the high court ruled that keeping the images of people who faced no action or who were charged and then acquitted was unlawful.

Despite the ruling, custody images of innocent people are still on the Police national database, which is available to all UK police forces and selected law enforcement agencies. The images can be used for facial recognition checks of potential suspects.

Then way down the page:

In Scotland, custody images are only uploaded to the Police National Database if a person has been charged with an offence. Police Scotland also reviews custody images to delete those not linked to a live prosecution or conviction.

^{https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/08/police-unlawfully-storing-images-of-innocent-people-for-facial-recognition}

Quite a bit better, eh? Human rights?

In 2020, on Reporting Scotland (!):

Meanwhile, the chair of the Independent committee scrutinising the way the police have implemented lockdown has told MSPs it’s given the idea of policing by consent ‘fresh life’ and he praised the police for setting up scrutiny of their actions themselves. He told a virtual meeting of Holyrood’s Policing Sub-Committee it was a healthy sign that the committee had been set up by the national force.

But, then the independent advisory committee chair, John Scott QC tells us:

I’ve been in touch with colleagues in the human rights field in other countries and it appears that Scotland is ahead of the game here in terms of having a human-rights-based scrutiny of these emergency powers. I’ve spoken to colleagues in England and Northern Ireland and now moving further afield as well. So I think it’s an extremely healthy sign that the initiative for this group came from within Police Scotland.

And, on BBC Scotland’s Nine (!) Dr Marsha Scott of Scottish Women’s Aid:

And one of the big things that we found on the helpline was that a really big part of the calls in the initial part of lock-down was just information about, if women decided to leave and could leave, would the police tell them that they had to go back. I mean we heard some stories from England that that might have been the case. And I want to give lots of credit to the Scottish police. That was certainly never the message up here.

And in 2021:

A new verification check for lone police officers in Scotland has been introduced in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard.

Police Scotland said it wanted to reassure the public after she was abducted and killed by Metropolitan police officer Wayne Couzens.

Couzens, 48, used his warrant card to abduct Ms Everard from a south London street before raping and murdering her.

Members of the public in Scotland can now request a control room check.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58776349

Action, doing something but what about in London where these events began? What is the Met doing? Well, nothing yet. From the Times today:

Flashers and perverts remain eligible to join the Metropolitan Police and other forces because of a loophole in vetting.

The anomaly means that Wayne Couzens, the officer who raped and murdered Sarah Everard, would probably still have been hired by the Met even if he had been arrested for exposing himself.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rethink-vetting-loophole-that-lets-sex-perverts-join-the-police-kj0wvx0jh

His letter reminds me of another once-regular theme here – are Scots different? While I recognise that we have Tories too, fascists even, I think in behaviour there is something in the form of a stronger, not complete, tendency toward leftist politics and collectivist values here.

More widely, Scotland is increasingly different.

See this evidence:

‘Scots’ different enough to be different?

and:
Only BBC UK sees different Scotland look after its veterans as England drifts further into the dark night of endless Tory rule

Scotland IS different as it protects unaccompanied children seeking asylum

Different NHS Scotland and Wales reject England’s hostile environment for vulnerable migrant mothers-to-be

It is a matter of life in Scotland and death in England

Only Guardian and Al Jazeera tell us EU families and ‘Eurochildren’ in Brexiting Britain feel safer in Scotland

Scotland drifting away from nasty place as SNP Government launches funeral benefit for those on low income

Scotland IS a different place as its universities offer guaranteed places to care leavers

Abuse of women and the disabled far higher in England than in Scotland

Less homicide, less knife crime, less domestic violence, safer cities and now much lower alcohol problems: should Scotland’s old stereotypes be sent south?

Racial hate crimes increase by 33% in England & Wales while falling by 10% in Scotland: Who says we’re not different?

Scottish Muslim students far less likely to report abuse or crime?

Terror de-radicalisation referral rate in Scotland less than one third per capita of that in England

Only in Scotland! ‘A review of small country’s approaches to public policy reform in response to economic, demographic and other pressures found that only in Scotland could this ‘golden thread’ be so clearly discerned’

Scientific evidence that Scots tend to be different from the other groups in rUK?

Who said Scots were not more left-wing than those in the rest of the UK?

With 1 in 4 living wage employers already in Scotland, the Scottish Government aims to make this a ‘Living Wage Nation’

8% of the UK population and 28% of living wage employers. More evidence that we are different enough to want to run the whole show?

80 000 lowest paid workers in NHS England still on poverty wages as NHS Scotland follows Scottish Government policy to pay a living wage to all public-sector employees

Scottish care workers to receive Living Wage for ‘sleepover’ hours while English care workers receive only the National Minimum Wage.

Different Scotland in the UN report on ‘Workhouse Britain’

Scottish values making oil and gas firms a tad different too?

Are Scotland’s employers also different – more willing to pay a decent wage?

With 1 in 4 living wage employers already in Scotland, the Scottish Government aims to make this a ‘Living Wage Nation’

8% of the UK population and 28% of living wage employers. More evidence that we are different enough to want to run the whole show?

And this from from January 2020:

From the Scottish Government News site today:

‘Young carers going through the immigration process will be able to apply for the Scottish Government’s Young Carer Grant without fear of it risking their immigration status. The change comes following lengthy discussions between the Scottish and UK Governments to amend Home Office regulations. With a payment of £300 the Young Carer Grant helps improve the quality of life for 16, 17 and 18-year-olds who spend an average of 16 hours caring for someone who receives a disability benefit. The Young Carer Grant was introduced in 2019 with an expected investment of £600,000 from the Scottish Government in 2019/20. Current regulations state that due to Home Office restrictions, young carers who are subject to immigration control are not eligible to receive the grant’

https://news.gov.scot/news/young-carer-grant-extended

This list all needs a bit of pruning and tidying but maybe later. We’re an untidy people?