Far more police officers and probation officers. Far lower crime levels and far less re-offending – that’s where you live, really and many of you know it

BBC Breakfast today reporting a damning assessment of the standard of policing in England & Wales.

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Many police forces in England and Wales still need to make improvements in the way they investigate crime and other “basics” of policing, according to His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC).

In her annual report, Michelle Skeer also said too many victims were not receiving the quality of service they should expect.

Forces continue to struggle when it comes to gathering evidence, identifying and progressing lines of inquiry, and keeping victims updated on their cases, she added.

There was progress in neighbourhood policing and in some of the work carried out by regional organised crime units that focus on offenders across multiple local police force boundaries, the report said. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c05r61jzp0po

BBC Scotland were silent on this. Here’s why:

Far more police officers and probation officers. Far lower crime levels and far less re-offending – that’s where you live, really.

From Statistics on policing published in May 2026:

There were 16,430 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in Scotland on 31 March 2026. This was 196 (+1.2%) more officers compared to the position on 31 March 2007.

As staffing levels have been maintained how has the level of crime faced by these officers changed?

Compared with England?

Scotland has the highest ratio of police officers per 100 000 population – 295.

England and Wales forces have a lower combined ratio 235–241.

This means Scotland has roughly 25–27% more officers per capita than the England/Wales average.

Sources:

  1. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-workforce-england-and-wales-30-september-2025/police-workforce-england-and-wales-30-september-2025
  2. https://policepromotion.blog/2024/07/30/police-workforce-2024-part-1-officer-numbers-across-uk-and-ireland

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Also:

Policing in Scotland: Are communities becoming less safe? No, ask 5 000 and three quarters say the opposite

I know, lets ask 5 000 people instead. In the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey for 2026:

Most adults feel safe walking alone after dark. The SCJS found that three-quarters (75%) of adults said that they felt very or fairly safe walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark in 2023-24. This is an increase from 66% in 2008-09 but has been stable since 2016-17. https://www.gov.scot/publications/safer-communities-and-justice-statistics-monthly-data-report-february-2026/pages/statistics-on-community-safety/

What might explain this improvement, contrasting with the front page reports of murder and stabbing and raping so loved by the media in Scotland? This:

Source: https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2024-25/pages/non-sexual-crimes-of-violence/

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