Nicola Sturgeon has played down fears about emergency service control centre closures – saying only a “tiny proportion” of emergency calls are being mishandled.
The first minister said mistakes such as the confusion that led to officers being dispatched to Glasgow instead of Aberdeen needed to be fully investigated.
But she suggested public concerns about the controversial centralising shake-up were outweighed by the potential benefit of freeing up frontline staff.
In an exclusive interview with the Press and Journal while on the local and general election trail in the north-east, she also defended her government’s limited help to firms hit by soaring business rates and promised a push to improve rural mobile phone signals.
And she warned voters that failing to deliver a “handsome” victory for the SNP in June’s general election would allow the Conservatives a “free hand” in Westminster.
The recent case of police officers ending up 140 miles from a reported incident at a Granite City supermarket was seized on by critics, who say the loss of local knowledge in control rooms and call centres is putting lives at risk.
“Every incident like that should concern us and should be properly reviewed and investigated,” Ms Sturgeon said.
“But these are a tiny minority of cases and the vast majority of calls happen the way the public would expect.”
She said the public were often wary of reform to key public services, meaning politicians sometimes “shy away from changes that need to be made.”
“This is about making sure that the systems that support the police and fire service are as effective and efficient as possible so that we have as many resources on the front line as possible,” she added.
“It is absolutely the responsibility of both police and fire to make sure that that is the case.”
The first minister spoke out after knocking on doors in Garthdee area as the SNP seeks to retake control of Aberdeen City Council in tomorrow’s elections.
She hailed the local party’s offer of a £4million relief package for firms hit by rates rises as one reason for people to “get out and vote”.
Aberdeen’s Labour-led administration has promised a £6million scheme – but only if half is stumped up by ministers.
Aberdeenshire’s SNP-led coalition has promised £3million.
Amid demands from businesses for more help from Holyrood, Ms Sturgeon said a cap for the hospitality trade and offices was everything “we felt we were able to do”.
With the parties also campaigning in earnest for next month’s snap general election, the SNP leader would not be drawn on whether the party could hold on to all the north and north-east seats it took in 2015’s huge victory.
“We are fighting to win every seat and the polls show the SNP is on track to win the election and win it handsomely.
“But we take nothing for granted,” she said.
“The Tories are on course for a substantial victory because Labour looks to be completely and utterly unelectable,” she added – predicting cut spending north of the border and policies that “really penalise the vulnerable”.
“If we don’t want them to have a free hand to do more of that then it’s important that those strong voices are there.”
The first minister said she was determined to push Westminster to deal with mobile “not spots” across the north and north-east and had asked Inverness and Nairn MSP Fergus Ewing – the cabinet secretary for the rural economy and connectivity – to convene a summit of providers.
“Regulation around mobile coverage is still a reserved matter,” she said.
“We would be very happy to see the UK Government take part to focus minds on what more needs to be done.”
She said claims the north-east was used as a “cash cow” to subsidise the rest of Scotland was “unfair”.
“There has been substantial investment and it’s right that there has been because the north-east is a key part of the Scottish economy and we want to do everything we can to support it.”
