Michael Matheson in pledge to keep 'right mix' of staff for Police Scotland
Police Scotland will have the "right mix" of officers and specialist staff, the Justice Secretary pledged, as new figures showed a slight fall in numbers.
Police Scotland will have the "right mix" of officers and specialist staff, the Justice Secretary pledged, as new figures showed a slight fall in numbers.
Scottish Government statistics showed there were the equivalent of 17,245 full-time officers employed in the force on September 30 2016, a fall of 16 from the same date in 2015.
The SNP dropped its pledge to maintain 1,000 extra officers earlier this year - but the figures showed the number of police was 1,011 higher than when the party came power to power in 2007.
Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said: "Scotland's police officers and staff work incredibly hard to serve our communities and public confidence remains high, with most people feeling police do a good or excellent job in their area.
"Crime is at a 42-year-low, supported by the fact levels of police officers in Scotland's communities remain historically high and well in excess of those in 2007.
"Criminal activity is evolving, becoming more complex and often technology-focused, while our police and other public services are involved in a range of activities to keep people safe from harm.
"We will continue to support Police Scotland and partner agencies to meet these demands, ensuring they have the right mix of officers and specialist staff to help keep our communities safe."
He said that as a result of the formation of Police Scotland, "local policing now has better access to specialist resources including major investigation teams, air support and the rape investigation unit, regardless of where in the country it's needed".
Mr Matheson continued: "We recently published the new strategic policing priorities, compiled after extensive public consultation, which have localism, prevention and accountability at their heart.
"From there, Police Scotland are now working with the Scottish Police Authority on a long-term strategy for a flexible, modern and sustainable police service.
"We have also committed to protecting the police resource budget in real terms in every year of this Parliament, delivering a boost of £100 million by 2021, and have provided an additional £55 million of reform funding in 2016/17."
Labour justice spokeswoman Claire Baker said there were "serious questions" for the Justice Secretary to answer as she called for him to appear before MSPs.
Ms Baker said: "We know that between official publications the SNP government regularly fails to meet their targets.
"It would be completely unacceptable if official statistics are being spun to get the SNP off the hook on police cuts.
"The Justice Secretary has serious questions to answer and must now update Parliament as a matter of urgency."
The Labour MSP continued: "The public must have confidence there are sufficient numbers of officers to keep our streets and communities safe.
"Yet the reality is that officer numbers are down on this time last year, Police Scotland faces a £17.5 million overspend and it is our communities and local policing who will suffer."
Deputy Chief Constable Iain Livingstone, of Police Scotland, said overall "officer numbers have remained constant and information is published regularly detailing our resources throughout the country".
He stated: "Police Scotland remains committed to maintaining officer numbers at the current level whilst we review demand, organisational profile and skills to shape a service that can deal with new and changing requirements from our communities.
"There will be weekly fluctuations in numbers as a result of monthly retiral patterns but we continue to recruit - an intake of 150 probationers started in September 2016 with further intakes planned.
"Local policing is at the core of Police Scotland. Individual divisional commanders are responsible to their communities and, as such, are empowered to deploy resources according to local needs.
"We carefully manage our resources at local, regional and national level to deal with the priorities of our communities, emerging threats and risks, major events and public demand."