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By Professor John Robertson OBA

From – Police officer quarterly strength statistics: 31 December 2024, published today:

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 16,508 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in Scotland on 31 December 2024

police officer numbers increased by 81 FTE officers (+0.5%) in the last quarter from 30 September 2024

police officer numbers increased by 145 FTE officers (+0.9%) in the last year from 31 December 2023

this is an increase of 273 FTE police officers (+1.7%) from the 16,234 FTE police officers recorded at 31 March 2007¹

Bear in mind crime in 2007 was 888 per 10 000 people as is now 550², 38% lower with more staff.

Sources:

1. https://www.gov.scot/publications/police-officer-quarterly-strength-statistics-31-december-2024/
2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/916472/crime-rate-of-scotland-uk/

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