Police Scotland’s chief constable has said he can’t give “any guarantee” over whether local policing will be impacted by COP26 – but says he has done everything he can to ensure communities won’t suffer.
Scotland’s highest-ranking police officer, Chief Constable Iain Livingstone admitted he has “some worries” about whether the large number of officers being dispatched to Glasgow during the climate summit will impact services elsewhere in Scotland.
But said he is “absolutely focused” on ensuring day-to-day policing levels are maintained.
Describing the job of policing COP26 as “uniquely demanding”, Mr Livingstone outlined how important it was that people did not experience any loss to their police service during the summit.
He said: “It will be intensely demanding, highly resource-intensive and massively disruptive in the Glasgow area, but also across different parts of Scotland at different times.
“But actually, of equal importance to me is over that period the people of Scotland still need a police service.
“There will be murders over that period, fatal road accidents, children will go missing, and victims of domestic violence will need police support.
“So we need to make sure that we are focused on policing COP26 – and everything that comes with it – but actually it’s really important that the people of Peterhead and the people of Elgin, Stonehaven, North Berwick, St Andrews, Falkirk and Hawick are still getting access to their police service.
“I wouldn’t be honest with the people of Scotland – and I’ll always speak directly – if I didn’t have some worries that our ability to provide the same level of service won’t be impacted by the fact that we’ve also got the United Nations coming to Scotland.”
COP26 will be ‘massively disruptive’ for Glasgow and around country
With around 10,000 officers planned from divisions across Scotland and the UK for each day of its scheduled four weeks, COP26 will be a massive security operation unlike any the country has seen before.
Police officers from each of Scotland’s 13 divisions will be required, alongside firearms officers, dog handlers, mounted branch, search teams and the marine unit.
Mr Livingstone described the summit as a presidential visit, a royal engagement, a heads of state gathering and climate conference “rolled into one”.
Yet, at the same time, the test Police Scotland – and its chief constable – also face is ensuring that officers are able to deal with day-to-day policing in all areas of the country.
He said: “We’ve done everything we can, and I’ve done everything I can, to ensure that there is still that level of community-based policing.
“We’ve still got murder detectives, we’ve still got roads policing officers and we’ve still got the same capabilities that the police service of Scotland brings to every community.
“Yes, we are focused on policing COP26, but I am absolutely equally focused on making sure that our day-to-day policing continues because the people of Scotland deserve that and there can’t be any detriment to that service.
“But I can’t give you any guarantee because this is going to be a uniquely demanding period.”
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