Scotland's New Unified National Police Force

[Graham]

Scotland's new unified police force replaces eight regional constabularies
Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Monday 1 April 2013 10.00 BST



For nearly 40 years, the farming and fishing counties of Dumfries and Galloway have been home to the smallest police force in the UK. But now the tiny force of just 535 officers tucked away in the south-west of Scotland has been swallowed up in the largest policing merger of the modern era.

From Monday, all eight of Scotland's regional forces are being replaced by just one, Police Scotland, which is now the UK's second-largest force after the Metropolitan police.

Its 17,400 officers will cover a patch of more than 30,000 square miles and a population of 5.3m people; its beat is vast, ranging from the housing estates of east end Glasgow to the distant islands of Shetland and Fair Isle.

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[Germanicus]

Would this new police force have been a conceptual idea from Alex Salmond or from Whitehall?

[Graham]

SNP, It's designed to save £1.7 billion over 15 years.

The fire department has also been unified.

It's more about cutting from the top-down, rather than bottom-up front line.

Am still to be convinced if it would work. Same thing may happen in England at a future date, if it works here. England and Wales, Currently operates 43 separate police forces.