Police Scotland

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined two home improvement companies a total of £250,000 for bombarding people on the UK’s ‘do not call’ register with millions of unlawful marketing calls.

• The Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley has announced that the London police force is to attend fewer mental health emergencies.
• As part of an approach called Right Care, Right Person, police officers will only respond to 999 mental health calls when there is an “immediate threat to life”.
• For many years now there have been calls, from people both within the police and those experiencing mental health crises, for the police to have less of a role in mental health emergencies.
• Under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act, police officers can detain someone if they believe that person’s mental health is causing an immediate risk to the person or others.

Emergency response

• And in 2021/22, Mind noted that the equivalent of the population of a British town was picked up by the police in this way.
• Yearly numbers of Section 136 detentions in England and Wales from 2017/18 to 2021/22: Scotland’s reform was prompted by similar rising numbers.
• In 2019 four in every five 999 calls to Police Scotland were reportedly not about crime but vulnerability.

A traumatic experience

• Police cells were never the right place for someone experiencing a mental health crisis.
• This is as humiliating for the people being escorted as it is demoralising for the officers involved.
• The idea behind Right Care, Right Person is that people in crisis be cared for by mental health professionals.
• Since 2013, mental health nurses have joined police officers in street triage schemes, accompanying them on patrol to provide immediate mental health support to people.
• Being frequently detained by the police – without proper, long-term mental health support – makes vulnerable people feel worse.
• In the US – call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or IMAlive at 1-800-784-2433.

• Police Scotland, the UK’s second-largest force, may not face a crisis in public trust and confidence of the same scale.
• Following the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, police leaders did not consider racism to be a problem in Scotland’s policing.
• Bayoh’s family has repeatedly insisted his death was a consequence of disproportionate use of force and motivated by racial bias.
• The Scottish Police Federation said that the force had a “vigorous” approach to handling misconduct that sets it apart from the UK’s other forces.

Recruitment and retention

• Meanwhile, a higher proportion of officers from minority backgrounds continue to leave the force.
• Or they were on friendly terms with those who engaged in this behaviour, leaving little room for victims to speak out.
• The HMICS inspection also found that the representation of black and minority ethnic officers has never risen above 1%, compared with a 4% share of the Scottish population.
• Retention data shows that between 2019-20, of the 865 officers who left Police Scotland, 2% were black and minority ethnic and 24% were female.

Weak accountability

• In 2013, Scotland’s local police forces were merged into one, and the Scottish Police Authority was created to replace local police boards.
• This, coupled with a lack of formal powers for local democratic oversight of policing, has resulted in weak and lopsided police governance in Scotland.
• And the Scottish Police Authority’s own board and senior executive team lacks any representation from minority ethnic backgrounds.
• The first minister will have several party-specific issues dividing his attention, including a lack of transparency or rigorous accountability in the party.

• The ICO’s investigation also found evidence to suggest that It’s OK Ltd were potentially targeting elderly individuals.
• “We are always happy to support legitimate companies who want to comply with the law.
• Last year, we released updated direct marketing guidance to help those very businesses.“We are always happy to support legitimate companies who want to comply with the law.
• I was informed that my current service plan was due to expire and it needed to be renewed.
• I renewed it and I have been told that I am not eligible to receive an engineer visit for a service.
• It’s OK Ltd has received £194.40 from me a pensioner and will not provide a service.
• [sic]
  “Tried to rush me into renewing warranty on washing implying warranty had expired recently.