Idea 5: Create a single Scottish Police Service

Create a single Scottish Police Service but de-centralise decision-making to divisional command co-terminus with LA boundaries.

1. Localism. Any move to a national force must be balanced by a drive to localism, with the devolving out of functional responsibility to the local command level. This will be greatly assisted if local command divisions were co-terminus with Local Authority boundaries.

2. Independence. To safeguard against political interference there has to be legislation to properly define operational independence.

3. Rebranding. Brand the local police divisions with local names. So, for example, you would have a Glasgow police force; a Shetland police force and so on.

You can read more on this issue in an article Ross Martin (CSPP Policy Director) published - view here.