UNSAFE AND DANGEROUS

People may die if swingeing cuts to number of police go ahead warns federation chief

- CHRIS MCCALL and RYAN CARROLL

THE head of the Scottish Police Federation has warned "people may die" if swingeing cuts to the force's budget are implemented.

Officer numbers are already at their lowest level since Police Scotland was created a decade ago and it is feared a further 600 frontline jobs could be lost.

Now David Kennedy of the SPF, which represents frontline officers, claims reducing their numbers could result in another incident such as the M9 tragedy.

That saw John Yuill and Lamara Bell die in July 2015 after police failed to respond to reports of a car crash they had been involved in for three days.

Kennedy said: "The reality is we have a lack of officers. All we can do is keep highlighting it and saying to the public that any notion that policing will remain the same and will remain as safe as it has been is just not going to happen.

"People need to realise that and government needs to realise that. We might see more M9 cases appearing where people actually die, because that's the harsh reality if there are not enough police officers to get to calls that they are meant to attend. People may die." There were 17,324 officers in post when Police Scotland was created in 2013 and the SNP promised the total would never fall below this benchmark.

However, the pledge was later dropped and there has been a reduction of more than 600 since 2021.