Draft Strategic Police Priorities for Scotland

3. Engagement So Far

What We Did

The first stage of engagement for the review of our Scottish Strategic Police Priorities was launched on 7 ^th December 2015, supported by a discussion paper which was centred around the question 'What are your priorities for your police service?'. The document was published on the Scottish Government website and sent to a variety of stakeholders including Local Authority Police Scrutiny Committees, all MSPs, senior police officers, SPA Board members and staff, and various other stakeholders including a range of third sector organisations.

The first stage of engagement was intended to prompt a general discussion about the aspects of policing which are most important to people and organisations from across Scotland. The covering letter had two 'asks', firstly that people consider what is important to them about policing, and secondly, that they take the discussion as widely as possible through their own local areas.

As part of this initial round of engagement, Scottish Government officials attended a number of Local Authority Police Scrutiny Committee meetings and community planning events. A workshop with the YoungScot Police Scotland Youth Advisory Panel also took place.

A total of 68 responses were received and 18 ideas were posted on the Scottish Government's online policy ideas platform.

In addition to work specifically focused on the Strategic Police Priorities, the Scottish Government has been conducting a discussion around how we can become a Fairer Scotland by 2030. That discussion was launched in June 2015 and since then over 7,000 people have taken part in Fairer Scotland public events as well as locally organised sessions, with many more taking part online. Policing was raised in a number of the Fairer Scotland discussions and views captured have been used to augment those collected as part of our initial engagement on the Strategic Police Priorities.

What We Heard

Many of the responses and conversations that took place as part of the first stage of engagement on the Strategic Police Priorities reflected the view that the current Priorities contain a lot of fundamentally sound themes. There was, however, recognition that they could be refreshed and strengthened.

The views expressed can be very broadly divided into two main types: those that set out wider ambitions for our police service; and those that highlighted more specific operational issues. The table below seeks to capture the main points:

Figure 2: Summary of initial Engagement