| Jim Barrie said he accepted forces have more work as a result of new legislation, but he questioned whether the answer lay in passing lower grade incidents on to community support officers and neighbour-hood wardens.
Mr Barrie, a member of the Tayside Joint Police Board, said he would raise with Tayside Police the new guidelines drawn up by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, which recommend that officers should no longer respond to minor call-outs.
These include non-injury car accidents, neighbour disputes, parking rows, reports of abandoned vehicles and complaints of loud music or vandalism.
Chief constables are also reviewing whether officers should attend attempted suicides, minor fires, incidents of public drunkenness or be involved in notifying the next of kin of a death. Police would still assess all 999 calls, but would deal directly with only more serious matters and pass other calls on to local authority agencies.
The change, expected to be launched later this year, would allow forces to put more officers on the beat and not have them stuck in stations processing paperwork on cases where the level of criminality is low.
It has been brought about by legislative changes which have put more responsibilities on to police, including a greater onus on them to deal with youth crime.
ACPOS argues that the new duties will have major resource implications on Scotland’s forces and they won’t be able to carry out their new duties effectively and deal with major crimes if they are also to soak up minor matters.
Councillor Barrie said, “I sympathise with the police and I see where they are coming from, but I do have some questions about this new policy.
“I know community wardens have been deployed successfully in Dundee, but are they properly trained to deal with the type of minor crimes in this policy? Are they legally qualified to become involved and take appropriate action?
“I wonder if this is a situation where more use might be made of special constables, because they have greater powersens?
“I think there is also a danger a minor incident may escalate into a more serious incident, and that might be difficult to deal with if there is not a police officer present.
“I will raise my concerns with Tayside Police to see what their view is. I still think what we really need is more police officers.” |
