Police Scotland cars 'held together by duct tape'

Calum Steele said police cars were being held together by duct tape and cable ties

Police Scotland is using patrol cars held together with duct tape and cable ties, according to the organisation representing rank and file officers.

Calum Steele, of the Scottish Police Federation (SPF), also said interview suites for sex assault victims were damp and had mouldy carpets.

He said decades of under-investment had left a "crumbling police estate".

Justice Secretary Michael Matheson acknowledged the lack of funding but said an "estate plan" was now in place.

Police Scotland's corporate services director, David Page, also acknowledged it operated under "budgetary pressures".

Mr Steele, SPF general secretary, was speaking at a fringe meeting at the SNP conference in Glasgow, during which he showed a series of photographs to the audience.

He said there had been "decades of failures to invest" in infrastructure.

He also claimed police boards that ran the eight forces which merged to form Police Scotland had "made a pig's ear of looking after the things they were charged with looking after".

Mr Steele said: "Decades of failures cannot be afforded to be left unchecked at this point of time, because if we do we will have a service that rather than delivering excellence can only ever aspire to mediocrity, and I don't think that's going to be good enough."

He claimed officers were fighting 21st-century crime with technology that was developed in the 1990s.

He cited the use of old versions of the Windows operating system - which are no longer supported by Microsoft - on force computers.

Day-to-day spending at Police Scotland on expenses such as staffing is expected to be £21m over budget by the end of 2016-17, he said.

Mr Steele continued: "Police officers are doing a hell of a job under very, very difficult circumstances, the scale of the financial challenge facing the police service is enormous."

Calum Steele produced photos he said were taken inside police buildings

He showed pictures that he said came from inside police buildings and a photo of a car being used by officers.

"We have a crisis, a genuine crisis, coming round the corner as far as our facilities are concerned," he said.

He said an interview suite used to question victims of sex crimes who have undergone a "harrowing ordeal" has mould on the carpets as well as damp on the ceilings, water coming in and "absolutely stinks of damp".

"That's the kind of facilities we, through no fault of our own, are bringing victims of crime. Can you imagine for a moment what that must be like going in there, looking for a professional service?" he said.

'Improve conditions'

Mr Steele continued: "We have police vehicles held together with duct tape and cable ties. Duct tape and cable ties, that is what is keeping our fleet together on the road right now because we have no money.

"This is the reality of no money to invest in the estate of the police service of Scotland."

Mr Matheson, who was also at the fringe event, said the pictures illustrated "chronic under-investment" in the police estate over many decades.

The justice secretary also spoke of the "challenges which will be faced going forward for Police Scotland to try to invest in these areas where they can in order to try to improve the conditions".

Staff wellbeing

But he stressed: "These are not issues that have just arisen through the creation of Police Scotland, they have been there for many, many years. It is going to take time in order to deal with some of these issues.

"A key part of what has to happen is for the service to prioritise areas where it wants to see that capital investment going into in order to make sure it is dealing with the areas that require to be addressed as early as possible.

"There is an estate plan which the police themselves are taking forward. These haven't happened through the creation of Police Scotland, that is through previous lack of investment into the police estate by the former legacy forces that will have to be addressed in the years going forward by Police Scotland."

However the government came under fire from opposition parties.

Scottish Labour's justice spokeswoman Claire Baker said: "Accounts released in August revealed that Police Scotland cannot invest in capital and infrastructure because they aren't getting the resources they need from the SNP government to pay for staff and officers.

"No wonder officer levels are at their lowest since 2010 whilst civilian staff posts have been slashed."

Spending cuts

And Liam McArthur, justice spokesman for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said: "The savings that the SNP promised would come from the creation of Police Scotland have simply not materialised and officers and civilian staff are facing years of further spending cuts as a result.

"That is not good for our police and it is not good for communities across Scotland."

David Page, director of corporate services, strategy and change at Police Scotland, said: "We are committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of our staff and delivering an excellent service to our communities and regularly review our operational policing requirements to ensure police officers and staff have the facilities and equipment required to perform their duties.

"The inherited building estate and vehicle fleet are constantly under review to ensure police officers and staff have the facilities and equipment required to perform their duties."