By Bill Heaney
Dumbarton constituency MSP Jackie Baillie has urged the Scottish Government to “sit up and listen”, following a surge in the number of officers quitting Police Scotland.
Figures show the number of cops quitting the force for new careers rocketed by 49 per cent between 2019 and 2023.
The data obtained by Scottish Labour following Freedom of Information requests, shows that education, other employment and personal reasons led rising numbers of officers to quit.
In 2023, the last year of complete data, 846 officers resigned altogether for career, personal or retirement reasons.
It comes as budgetary constraints leads to additional pressures on officers.
The Scottish Government has been warned that the strain is showing on the force and Scottish Labour fears a “snowball effect”.
Police officers can retire after 30 years’ service – but on average, retire nine years earlier than required.
Nearly half of police officers stated they would not have chosen policing as a career had they known how demanding and resource-constrained it was, according to recent research by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research.
Scottish Labour MSP Jackie Baillie, who has called on the Scottish Government to bolster numbers, said: “These figures are damning and it is time for the SNP to sit up and listen.
“This should come as a wake-up call for the Scottish Government, who have been warned time and again that morale is low and fears over the safety of officers, rife.
“Our dedicated police officers realise the career is a demanding one, but it is made even harder when they are expected to deliver the same level of response and reassurance with ever-decreasing resources.
“If officers continue to bear the brunt of cuts, it will result in more burning out and those still serving becoming even more stressed.
“The SNP is not good at listening but it is time they heeded the warnings they are being given over our public services and came up with a plan to boost policing.
“Scottish Labour will prioritise more community police officers, upgrade equipment and improve co-ordination between emergency services to ensure the best use is being made of police officers’ time.”
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Officers leaving Police Scotland for education, other employment or personal reasons have increased by 49% between 2019 and 2023.
Leaving Reason 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Total
Resignation- Education 7 8 5 9 6 35
Resignation- Other Employment 69 40 66 91 124 390
Resignation- Personal 97 67 85 93 127 469
Retirement- 25-30 years 114 66 122 543 364 1209
Retirement- Medical 81 54 29 45 90 299
Retirement- On option 1 1
Retirement- Pension 456 384 417 575 135 1967
Transfer- Other 1 1
Transfer to another force 36 22 21 27 19 125
Total 860 641 746 1,383 866 4496
The average service of a police officer prior to leaving the organisation is 21 years and 15 days. The average is calculated from the formation of Police Scotland – 1 April 2013 to 30 September 2024. This data excludes the reason for leaving ‘Death in Service’.
Source: Labour FOIs
“Great Expectations! Work and Workplace Expectations, Realities, and Retention of Police Officers in Scotland” – SIPR
Police Scotland is a political police force.
Too much of what the police do is politically driven. Woke and the focus on LGBT and Trans being one example.
Or Hate Crime another example.
And of course there was a bottomless pit of money and resources to pursue a political witch hunt against Alex Salmond, Craig Murray, Mark Hurst and others. The street theatre of the search of Nicola Surgeons house was another example of political posturing.
That together with police having had to take a hard line with some but not all COVID rule breakers must have broken many a good cops spirit. Another political act of biased focus.
Folks should recognisethe police for what they are, and how the political diktats, political appointments of senior officers, and dissolution ment of junior officers having to just do as direrected, is destroying policing.
The majority of cops are ordinary folks like you and I having to do what is a rotten jokem