Police Scotland's new chief constable Jo Farrell takes up post

Jo Farrell is the first female chief constable of Police Scotland

The incoming chief constable of Police Scotland takes up her post on Monday.

Jo Farrell is the first woman to lead the force.

She joins from Durham Constabulary, which she has led since 2019. She was previously assistant chief constable at Northumbria Police.

She was appointed to her new role by the Scottish Police Authority and approved by Justice Secretary Angela Constance.

Ms Constance previously said Ms Farrell "has shown she has the skills needed to lead the service".

The appointment means Ms Farrell moves from running one of the smallest police forces in the UK, to the second-largest.

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She faces a number of challenges in the new role.

The force is struggling with a projected £19m budget overspend and has announced plans to sell off buildings and cancel the recruitment of 200 new officers.

It is also redeploying staff from the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan, Fife, to back up front-line officers during the busy Christmas and New Year period.

And the conduct of Police Scotland officers is at the centre of the inquiry into the death of Sheku Bayoh, who died while in police custody in Kirkcaldy in 2015.

Last month, the retired senior officer who was in charge of the police response after Mr Bayoh's death apologised to the dead man's family for the way they had been treated by officers.

'Institutionally racist'

In May, the outgoing chief constable Sir Iain Livingstone said the force was "institutionally racist and discriminatory".

His verdict came after a review uncovered first-hand accounts of racism, sexism and homophobia by serving officers.

Sir Iain said prejudice and bad behaviour within Police Scotland was "rightly of great concern" but he stressed that his admission did not mean individual officers and staff were racist or sexist and he also expressed pride and confidence in their work.

Jo Farrell arrives from one of England's smallest forces to lead the UK's second biggest and will immediately face major challenges.

Police Scotland's finances are under real pressure. A smaller number of officers is dealing with a bigger workload, and detection rates for some crimes are going down.

The arrival of 200 new recruits in January has been postponed and the force predicts officer numbers could fall to 16,200, the lowest since the SNP took office in 2007.

There's a freeze on recruitment of civilian staff and a projected £19m budget overspend.

That's this year's financial headache. Ms Farrell will have to fight Police Scotland's corner in negotiations with the Scottish government over next year's settlement.

As if all that wasn't enough, there's Operation Branchform, the force's ongoing investigation into the SNP's finances. Whichever way that goes, the new chief will have to navigate tricky political waters.

In another ongoing controversy, the force is currently more than two years into an investigation into the SNP's finances.

Officers are looking into what happened to more than £600,000 of donations given to the SNP by supporters since 2021.

The investigation has seen former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon arrested before being released without charge.

The same thing has happened to her husband, the SNP's former chief executive Peter Murrell, and the party's former treasurer, Colin Beattie.

Ms Farrell joined the police aged 22 in 1991.

Departing chief constable Sir Iain Livingstone described Police Scotland as "institutionally racist and discriminatory"

She is no stranger to controversy, having dealt with a number of high-profile and difficult policing decision in her four years in charge of the Durham force.

She was in charge during the "beergate" investigation into Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who was cleared of any wrongdoing following allegations he had breached coronavirus rules.

And she led the force during Dominic Cummings' infamous trip to Barnard Castle, County Durham, during the height of the Covid pandemic.