BLUE LITES

Warning as 1000 cops set to retire in a year

- EVE BEATTIE

POLICE Scotland is facing a recruitment crisis as almost 1000 officers could retire in less than a year.

The Scottish Police Federation said it would amount to six per cent of police, leaving the force with a staffing headache.

The Justice Affairs magazine 1919 obtained freedom of information data showing 945 officers are coming up for retirement within the next year.

Figures from August showed there were 16,207 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers employed on June 30, a decrease of 148 FTE officers since March.

This was the lowest count of full-time officers since 2007.

The SPF says Police Scotland cannot recruit enough officers to replace those who are leaving.

Chairman David Threadgold said: "Efforts to bring Police Scotland back up to its establishment figure of 16,600 are being hampered because the service simply cannot recruit the number of officers it needs to replace those who are leaving.