INQUIRY REPORT INTO ARMED POLICE POLICY PUBLISHED

29th January 2015

The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) is today publishing the findings and recommendations of its scrutiny inquiry into the public impacts of Police Scotland's decision in 2013 to authorise its trained Armed Response Vehicle officers to operate under a Firearms Standing Authority.

Among its key findings, the scrutiny inquiry found that. -

- a public attitudes survey of over 1,000 people found that public concerns about armed police may have been less widespread in Scotland than media coverage and civic comment may have suggested (with a narrow majority of respondents supporting the Police Scotland approach, and over three-quarters of respondents expressing no negative impact on their trust and confidence in Police Scotland as a result of the policy);

- Police Scotland underestimated the community feelings that would be generated among a significant minority of the population from armed police officers being sent to routine calls and incidents, and that in some parts of the country this represented a perceived and significant change in policing style; and

- the absence of a proactive communications and engagement strategy on armed policing ahead of implementation in 2013 contributed to subsequent public misunderstandings around the scale and deployment of armed officers in Scotland, and that despite considerable communications work by Police Scotland during 2014 these misunderstandings remain prevalent today.

The SPA inquiry also makes a number of key recommendations including:

- that Police Scotland should undertake prior engagement with the SPA, local authorities and communities prior to making any further ‘non time-critical' adjustments to the standing authority, deployment, or mode of carriage of firearms;

- Police Scotland should ensure advance engagement with the SPA on all issues which are likely to have a significant public impact, and that this should be captured in a public document that sets out expectations for wider engagement with national and local government, communities and other groups; and

- Police Scotland should ensure that all operational policies are subject to both community and equality impact assessments prior to implementation, and SPA should seek assurances that these have been undertaken and used to inform the decision-making process.

SPA member Iain Whyte, who chaired the scrutiny inquiry, said:"This inquiry was carried out as part of the SPA's scrutiny role and supports our aim of driving continuous improvement in policing.

"The inquiry considers that we have gathered the clearest picture yet of public views on the role of armed policing. Recent international events have thrown into sharp focus the pivotal role that an armed policing capability provides, and the views we have gathered provide reassurance about the levels of confidence the Scottish public have in our armed police officers and the contribution they make. But our findings also clearly demonstrate the mixed and divergent views that the issue of deployment to more routine calls and incidents generated among some areas and some sectors of society.

"That is one of the key lessons our findings and recommendations seek to learn from and address. Scotland is a diverse country and both Police Scotland and the SPA must consider the diversity of views, experiences and perspectives which exist within its geography and people. Equal access to specialist services should not be interpreted as meaning the ‘same' access to such services. That requires careful ongoing consideration so that an appropriate balance is struck between two key outcomes of police reform - the consistency of policing approaches across the country and a service that is accessible to all of the people it serves.

"The issues raised around armed officers have also generated public questions about the effectiveness of accountability and governance. Our conclusion is that a clear accountability framework for policing with the appropriate statutory authority is in place. What can be improved is public awareness and understanding of that framework, and an early priority should be for SPA and Police Scotland to set out clearly and publicly how that operates in practice.

"Our aim in publishing this report is to identify practical opportunities for improvement. An opportunity to learn from the experience gained from this armed policing issue, to improve engagement between policing and those it serves, and to build on the very robust levels of confidence the Scottish public has in their police service."

This report contains the findings and recommendations of a Scrutiny Inquiry undertaken by the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) into the decision made by Police Scotland to allow a limited number of trained police officers carrying firearms to deploy to routine incidents in support of local policing under a Firearms Standing Authority. The inquiry report, together with supporting reports on the public attitudes survey, analysis of written evidence, and academic input, can be accessed on the SPA website at www.spa.police.uk