Budget and staff cuts should not hinder Tayside Police’s ability to carry out frontline duties, the force’s leading officer has reassured.
Chief Constable Justine Curran told the region’s joint police board on Monday that while minor changes would have to be made to some operating procedures, cuts would not see any reduction in the number of bobbies on the beat throughout the area.
Staff numbers throughout the force will be reduced by 55 from the end of April after Tayside Police accepted applicants through voluntary redundancy and early retirement schemes.
Budget savings for the next financial year are set to stand at £4.3 million, required as part of government spending cutbacks across the country.
The bulk of the posts lost will be administrative, with frontline police numbers set to be maintained as part of a funding agreement with the Scottish Government.
Discussing how the staff cuts will impact, Chief Constable Curran said, “What we need to do is a risk assessment of what the posts are and the impact they will have (once vacated). We’ll then look at an alternative way of delivering that service.
“It will mean that things that were done locally will now be done centrally, hopefully to make things more efficient.”
Five CCTV operators are set to leave under the savings drive, although assurances were given that coverage would not be significantly hindered.