The aim of this thematic inspection was to assess the state, effectiveness and efficiency of road policing arrangements in Scotland.
HMICS has never previously conducted a thematic inspection of road policing in Scotland and it is now almost 16 years since the last major inspection of road policing in Great Britain. The findings of this thematic inspection should be of interest to all stakeholders with an interest in road policing and its overall contribution to road safety and security outcomes in Scotland and beyond.
Our fieldwork took place during February 2014, which was only 10 months after the creation of Police Scotland and our findings should be interpreted against the background of major reform. The inspection nonetheless provided a timely opportunity to examine Police Scotland and objectively assess how the new national structures and functions needed to deliver road policing have been implemented. We also considered what impact this major change has had in terms of maintaining performance and delivering outcomes to communities.
The Scottish Government set three objectives for police reform:
(i) to protect and improve local services,
(ii) to create more equal access to specialist support and national capacity, and
(iii) to strengthen the connection between police services and communities.
We have taken the opportunity during this inspection to reflect on the extent to which these reform objectives are being achieved in terms of road policing.
Number | Recommendation |
|---|---|
1 | Police Scotland should examine the extent to which target setting and performance management processes drive operational behaviours and assess their impact in terms of delivering outcomes and maintaining public satisfaction and confidence. |
2 | Police Scotland should ensure that road policing measures and targets contribute effectively to road casualty reduction across Scotland and explicitly support the outcomes sought from Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2020. Appropriate emphasis should be given to broader road security matters including the use of the strategic roads network by criminals. |
3 | Police Scotland should reassess the resource allocation model for road policing based on 12 months’ experience of the new structures and operating model. It should then establish a written plan for the redistribution of national resource to enable delivery of its determined road policing operating model and should specify an envisaged target date for completion. |
4 | The Scottish Police Authority should engage with local authorities to define roles and responsibilities for local scrutiny committees and understand their legitimate interest in issues beyond setting the local policing plan and holding the divisional commander to account for its delivery. |
5 | Police Scotland should conduct a review of the analytical and administrative support arrangements within Operational Support Division that are available to support road policing. This review should consider the analytical support requirements necessary to ensure that road policing assets are deployed intelligently, and should also consider whether there is sufficient administrative research capacity to support work that links intelligent-led deployments and activity more clearly to outcomes. |
6 | Police Scotland should review what information sharing protocols it has in place with key strategic roads network partners with a view to improving real-time information exchange, overall incident management, and journey reliability for motorists. |