Public and officer safety will be “compromised” by the closure of Fife’s police control room, according to an internal Police Scotland report.
The document, compiled by CCTV co-ordinator Mark Waterfall and seen by The Courier, reveals serious concerns about the impact on incident recording, the potential loss of video feed and “Airwave capability”, a digital radio service for police and other emergency services.
The report says: “If only telephony is available for CCTV operators to report incidents it will inevitably lead to delays in passing the relevant information to the regional control room.
“This could lead to the possibility of someone receiving a serious injury or ultimately loss of life.”
Among the conclusions on the “loss of the Airwave facility and the video feeds” are “public safety would be compromised”, “officer safety would be compromised” and “crucial evidence would be lost, impacting on evidence provided to Fife Division, partners and the procurator fiscal”.
Chief Superintendent Val Thomson, head of contact, command and control in Police Scotland, said the control room closures would “improve the services our communities receive”.
She added: “There are no plans to change the CCTV service provided by staff in Glenrothes.
“The issues highlighted will all be addressed prior to implementation of the new model which will lead to an improved service to the public.”
Plans to axe six control rooms across Scotland were approved last week.
A consultation is now ongoing following the decision of the force’s watchdog, the Scottish Police Authority, to back the closures.
Motherwell and Govan will form a west area control centre, with Bilston Glen near Edinburgh given responsibility for the east command area and Dundee the north area command.
Inverness will lose its control room but will instead become the new hub for the command and control of major incidents and national events anywhere in the country, equipped with new communications systems.
A national virtual service centre will be split between west and east commands.
Dumfries will close in April, Stirling in December, Glenrothes and Pitt Street in March next year and Aberdeen in December 2015.
Civilian staff will be offered redeployment, voluntary redundancy or early retirement, with a “phased consultation” with unions and staff to be carried out.
Unions have claimed a high number of jobs will be lost but Police Scotland has said that there will be no compulsory redundancies.
For the full story see Friday’s Courier or try our digital edition.