From BBC UK today:
Police were unprepared for the scalebb of disorder that broke out in part of the UK following the Southport knife attacks, a police watchdog has found. Police intelligence did not predict the “rising tide of violent disorder well enough”, according to the review of their response to the worst UK unrest in more than a decade.
Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke praised officers for their “immense bravery and personal sacrifice” while protecting the public. But he warned it was “clear” that police had missed opportunities to prepare for widespread disorder, and that earlier incidents involving “extreme nationalist sentiment” had been underestimated.
From BBC Scotland in 9 August 2024, in what must be an unauthorised ‘Scotland is the best‘ report by a junior reporter not yet ‘inducted‘:
Police Scotland is considering a request to send 120 officers to Northern Ireland following several nights of anti-immigration riots in Belfast and other parts of the UK. Jon Boutcher, chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), said his officers were exhausted and could not “stand alone to deal with disorder like this any more”.
Mr Boutcher said the PSNI needed support as it had been allowed to “decay” in recent years. The National Police Coordination Centre, which provides support to forces across the UK, said it was considering a request from the Police Service in Northern Ireland (PSNI) for back-up from other forces.
“As a national service, Police Scotland has the ability to flex resources where the need is greatest in order to keep people safe,” said a Police Scotland spokesperson.
{The FM] said Police Scotland had “formidable” resources that could be deployed flexibly across the country if required.
How was this possible?
From the Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Data Report : July 2024 edition:
Crime has fallen by 53% since 2008-09. Results from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) show that around 1 in 10 adults were victims of crime in 2021-22 (10.0%) compared to 1 in 5 in 2008-09 (20.4%). The estimated number of crimes fell by 53% over the same period, and by 18% since 2017-18.
IMPORTANT – This is not based on police reporting which is known to understate the actual level of crime but on The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS), a large-scale (5 500 interviews) social survey which asks people about their experiences and perceptions of crime in Scotland and is considered ‘gold standard’ research methodology ie very accurate.
In crude terms, you’re half as likely to be victim of crime than you were 17 years ago. How’s that for real news utterly unacceptable for our MSM’s agenda?
Despite this massive fall, there are actually slightly more police officers, as of March 2024, than there were, 17 years ago, at the end of the last Labour Government in March 2007:
From Police Scotland data, 7 May 2024:
Scotland’s Chief Statistician has published statistics on Police Officer Quarterly Strength, which gives the number of full-time equivalent police officers employed by Police Scotland.
The key findings of the statistics are:
There were 16,356 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in Scotland on 31 March 2024
This is an increase of 122 FTE police officers (+0.7%) from the 16,234 FTE police officers recorded at 31 March 2007 https://www.gov.scot/publications/police-officer-quarterly-strength-statistics-31-march-2024/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 