Criminal officers in England having ‘negative impact’ on Police Scotland staff

David Kennedy, the leader of the Scottish Police Federation, said public perception of police in Scotland was being shaped by events in England.

Criminal officers in England having ‘negative impact’ on Police Scotland staffPA Media

Police in Scotland are being placed under “stress”, and public perception of them is changing due to officers in England such as the killer Wayne Couzens, the leader of the Scottish Police Federation has said.

David Kennedy said claims by the force’s former chief constable that Police Scotland is institutionally racist and sexist also had a “negative impact” on officers.

Mr Kennedy told a fringe event at the Scottish Labour conference that officers had the “relentless task” of dealing with the “constant barrage of issues” stemming from forces south of the border.

The SPF leader, whose organisation represents 99% of the nation’s officers, cited the case of Couzens, the Met officer who raped and murdered Sarah Everard, as well as serial rapist David Carrick, also from the Met in London.

Asked what it was like to be a frontline officer in Scotland today, Mr Kennedy told a group at the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow: “Being a frontline police officer in Scotland at the moment can be rewarding – that’s why police officers join.

“But it’s extremely frustrating, and it’s quite a relentless task on the constant barrage, I would say, from the issues that have come from England and Wales, particularly around Wayne Couzens and David Carrick, has put quite a lot of stress on police officers, because they are on the whole good people who just want to do the job and that is a weight that is on them.

“It became relative to me recently when I heard of a lone, older female when police officers went to the door to speak with her, and it wasn’t until her son came home at the same time that she’d asked if they wanted to come in for a coffee.

“They said no, we have calls to go to. it wasn’t until her son came up that she said you can come in now and that shows you what is going on in police officers’ heads when they are dealing with members of the public.

“They’re thinking, what is coming at the end of this, will I get a complaint coming against me?

“It’s not always fair and always correct that nobody should be thinking in that manner, but that’s what they have to do.”

Asked by the PA news agency whether comments by former chief constable Iain Livingston that the force is institutionally racist and sexist had also had an impact on how the public views police, Mr Kennedy said it had.

“It absolutely does and that comment itself has had a negative impact on police officers,” he said.

“We are now in an uphill struggle to try and make sure that members of the public understand what that terminology actually means.

“I don’t think we have the same struggles that England and the Met may have, but it still exists.

“We now have to counter that as well and continually emphasise to people that this isn’t the case, or officers aren’t racist because they’re not.

“In any walk of life, you’re going to have people that are racist in any walk away show people that are sexist.

“The point with police officers is it’s not a generality thing that they are or they are not.

“So we have to continually battle against that.”

Jo Farrell, who became Scotland’s latest Chief Constable last year, said she agreed with her predecessor’s comments that the force is “institutionally discriminatory”.

Mr Kennedy earlier told the fringe event that trust issues with police were “made up in the sense that 99.8% of officers are never in trouble”.

He said trust could be built back in communities with more visible policing, adding that it was important Scots knew who their local officers were.

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