One of the few benefits of Police Scotland – perhaps the Scottish Government’s most botched policy – has been the increased scrutiny of law and order. Before April 2013, legacy forces wielded huge power without any genuine accountability. Post-reform, policing is now on a par with health and education in terms of column inches and media and political interest.
This scrutiny has not come from the organisations specifically set up to monitor the progress of the single force.
The Scottish Police Authority (SPA), created as the formal oversight body, has flopped and regularly fails to seize the initiative on controversial policing issues. Local scrutiny committees, which were supposed to provide community accountability, have not yet found their voice.
The surprise success of the new policing landscape has been the Holyrood sub-committee set up to review the impact of the single force. In three years, MSPs on the committee ensured national attention was given to stop and search, armed policing and a range of other subjects mishandled by the force.
The sub-committee has not been an unalloyed success. Although it doggedly pursued the illegal spying scandal earlier this year, the poor standard of questioning by some MSPs was cruelly exposed.
Minor grumbles aside, the leaked document showing that the sub-committee may be axed is worrying. Such a development would be a boost for Police Scotland and provide welcome relief for the Government. It would do the public no favours at all.
The Justice Committee has always had a heavy workload, but MSPs should recognise the value of the sub-committee and demand that it stays.
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