Police officer quarterly strength statistics: 30 June 2020

Statistics on Police Officer Quarterly Strength, which gives the number of full-time equivalent police officers employed by Police Scotland.


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 17,273 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in Scotland on 30 June 2020
  • Police officer numbers decreased by 157 FTE officers (-0.9%) in the last quarter from 31 March 2020
  • Police officer numbers increased by 14 FTE officers (+0.1%) in the last year from 30 June 2019
  • This is an increase of 1,039 FTE police officers (+6.4%) from the 16,234 FTE police officers recorded at 31 March 2007

The statistics in this release are based upon quarterly returns made by Police Scotland to the Scottish Government, and are a by-product of live administrative processes, generated directly from the HR systems. The data return provides a snapshot of police strength at the end of the quarter. The published police officer figures are sourced from Police Scotland’s personnel records and as such the quality and reliability are good.

The next edition in the series, Police Officer Quarterly Strength Scotland, 30 September 2020, will be published on Tuesday 3 November 2020.

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