Police Scotland has announced plans to invest in new cyber hubs and purchase new unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as it unveiled a three-year implementation plan for the Policing 2026: Serving a Changing Scotland strategy.
The UAVs will be used as alternatives to the force helicopter in rural and remote areas, primarily in the search for missing people, while a £3.6m investment in cyber hubs will mean that state-of-the-art facilities will be set up in the north and west of the country to add to an existing hub in Edinburgh. These specialist teams will help tackle rising demand for digital and cyber-related crime investigations and work on prevention.
Data from mobile devices is increasingly valuable in investigations, and around 40 cyber kiosks will be provided across Scotland for local officers to triage mobile devices quickly to determine if further specialist forensic analysis is needed.
These projects are just some of those which will be delivered over next three years in the first phase of the implementation of Police Scotland’s work to change the way it delivers services, following a public consultation on the strategy earlier this year.
The plan will be presented to the Scottish Police Authority at its meeting on 19 December.
Other elements of the plan include:
- Piloting a range of mobile devices for operational use, enabling officers to access core systems and applications away from base
- Responding appropriately to the needs of individuals and communities by developing a new contact and resolution model based on an assessment of risk and vulnerability and with a continued commitment to localism
- Enhancing our response to risk and vulnerability through a new contact assessment model and work with partners
- A public consultation on the use of body worn video
- Increasing automatic number plate recognition coverage, intelligence and capabilities
- Investing in our workforce wellbeing, modernising staff pay and reward, and introduction of a new leadership strategy
- Developing an operating model for corporate support services, providing consistently high levels of service and access
Deputy Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said, “Our officers and staff across Scotland do an excellent job protecting the public every day, but the demands on policing have been changing. Our Serving a Changing Scotland strategy was developed to address the challenges we now face and to enable the police service to become operationally and financially sustainable.
“Since we consulted on this strategy earlier in the year, we’ve been working hard to pull a broad range of projects together so we can prioritise the work we need to do.
“This three year plan sets out what those priorities are and how we will go about the first stages of this transformation. It sets out how we will give our officers and staff the tools, resources and support they need to continue to keep people safe and to respond appropriately to the millions of calls for help we receive every year.
“Fundamental to all of this is the wellbeing and development of everyone working in Police Scotland, regardless of rank or role. This will allow all of us to play our part in making these changes happen and take pride in the future of policing in Scotland.”
The implementation plan is available as a downloadable PDF file:
Policing 2026 – 3 year programme 2017-2020
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