Not enough coppers

In an attention-grabbing headline, The Scotsman reports that Scots police chiefs plan to ignore minor crime ‘to boost efficiency’:

In a move that will threaten the Scottish Executive’s crackdown on anti-social behaviour, a report by the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland (ACPOS) recommends that officers should no longer be responsible for call-outs to incidents such as car crashes, minor fires or arguments between neighbours.

Under the proposals, parking disputes, the abandonment of vehicles, or complaints about loud music or vandalism would also be left to community-support officers or neighbourhood wardens to deal with.

…

However, Bill Aitken, the deputy justice spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, described the proposals as “totally unacceptable”.

He said: “To suggest police officers should not attend incidents where there is a potential for serious trouble developing is very much a false economy.

“The fact is there are simply not enough police officers on the streets, but this plan is totally unacceptable.”

Hey, we can now say because the police will no longer handle minor offences, the crime rate will go down (private joke)! Lord knows they could use some Singaporean police officers, they certainly don’t have much to do in comparison.

• 4 Jan 2005