COPS north of the border lack the tools to stop “two neds stabbing each other” never mind a terrorist attack, a member of the Scottish Police Federation (SPF) has claimed.
The allegation was made in an emergency debate held at the annual SPF conference, effectively the trade union of rank and file police officers.
Not originally on the agenda, officers wanted to debate the readiness of the national force to deal with a wide scale emergency after the terrorist attack in Westminster last week where Khalid Masood killed three people, including PC Keith Palmer, before being shot dead.
Calum Steele, the general secretary of the SPF, told delegates the force was sending officers out hopelessly under-equipped.
Speaking after the meeting, Steele said: “We know that batons don’t work, we know that in 40 per cent of cases spray doesn’t work, we know that unarmed police officers are not only sent to incidents of knives but also to reports of firearms. That’s a disgraceful position to find ourselves in and it’s unforgivable.
“The events at Westminster took place in less than 90 seconds and were able to be brought to an end because hundreds of officers were in the vicinity.
“No police force in the world can stop those kinds of events, but police should be given the equipment they need to protect themselves and the public if events unfold quickly.
“We don’t have anything that would allow us to deal with the immediacy of a very quick attack such as that which unfolded in London.”
During the discussion, Chris Thomson, a member of the SPF West Area Committee, called for a complete review of how officers deal with threats from weapons.
He said: “Now is the time for all officers to have at least a Taser and more divisional firearms officers carrying a handgun.
“It won’t stop all attacks but it will be a better defence than we currently have.
“We don’t have all the tools to deal with two neds stabbing each other, never mind a terrorist attack like we saw. Our tactics are wrong and out of date.”
David Hamilton, vice-chair of the SPF, suggested looking to the Norwegian policing model where all officers are firearms trained and have a gun safely locked away in their car.
He said: “We need to be able to stand up our response quickly and we’re totally ill-equipped for that. Yes we can get armed response vehicles out and firearms resources, but that will very, very quickly be depleted and it’s not sustainable for a long period of time.
“We need to have more in the bank.”
However, Deputy Chief Constable Johnny Gwynne told reporters in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire that Police Scotland was “match fit”.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we as a command team in Police Scotland pride ourselves in being an unarmed service with the ability to draw on armed capability when we need it.
“We are committed to remaining what looks like an unarmed service, because that’s what we believe makes policing work here.
“It is in essence a policing model that works right across the UK and that’s what we’re committed to.”
The force has also announced plans to give tasers to police officers patrolling the Scottish Parliament.
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