Scottish Police Numbers 1000 Higher than 2007

2nd February 2021

Police officer quarterly strength statistics: 31 December 2020.

Scotland's Chief Statistician has published statistics on Police Officer Quarterly Strength, which gives the number of full-time equivalent police officers employed by Police Scotland.

The key findings of the statistics are:

there were 17,234 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in Scotland on 31 December 2020.

police officer numbers decreased by 15 FTE officers (-0.1%) in the last quarter from 30 September 2020.

police officer numbers decreased by 25 FTE officers (-0.1%) in the last year from 31 December 2019.

this is an increase of 1,000 FTE police officers (+6.2%) from the 16,234 FTE police officers recorded at 31 March 2007.