Labour to call for specialist community police officers

Scottish Labour will use a Holyrood debate on Wednesday to push for the creation of specialist “community and crime prevention officers” to tackle local crime.

The community officers, the party has said, would be deployed into every council ward in Scotland and work with local representatives, respond to local incidents and look for ways to reduce crime rates.

Crime prevention officers would work with local schools, retailers and community groups in high-crime areas.

Scottish Labour will roll out the new posts by the end of the next parliamentary term, if the party wins the next election, but will lead a debate on Wednesday calling for the implementation regardless.

The call comes after figures released last week showed officer numbers reduced by almost 100 in the year to December 31.

Labour justice spokeswoman Pauline McNeill said: “SNP ministers have badly let down our communities by allowing police officer numbers to fall, with crime on the rise.

“That is why Scottish Labour will restore community policing and get police back on Scotland’s streets.

“We will return at least 360 police officers to divisions on the frontlines, cutting thousands of wasted hours in A&E departments and in our courts.

“We are committed to a strong police service in which officers and staff feel supported for the big challenges they face.”

Labour justice spokeswoman Pauline McNeill said she would put police ‘back on Scotland’s streets’ PA Media

She added: “Scotland deserves better than this dangerously incompetent SNP government and its soft-touch approach to justice.

“A Scottish Labour government will tackle this crisis by boosting local policing, tackling the courts backlog, and delivering the prisons our country needs.”

Ms McNeill also hit out at the ongoing early release scheme for some prisoners – the third of its kind in recent years – which is aimed at reducing the prison population.

The schemes, she said, will make communities less safe and give people convicted of crimes like drug dealing and robbery a “much easier ride”.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Scotland continues to be a safe place to live, with recorded crime down by half since 1991, homicide levels at their lowest-ever recorded level and people feeling safer in their communities.

“The draft Budget provides more than £1.7 billion for policing in 2026-27 – following record investment which enabled Police Scotland to take on more recruits in the last financial year than at any time since 2013. We continue to have more officers per capita than England and Wales.

“The deployment of officers is an operational matter for the chief constable who has the flexibility to allocate resources to best keep communities safe.”