The leadership skills of Scotland’s top police officer have been questioned over Police Scotland’s controversial stop and search practices.
Sir Stephen House was quizzed by MSPs about a series of issues which have dogged his regime in recent weeks.
During a fiery hour-long session of Holyrood’s justice committee, the Chief Constable:Heard the head of the Scottish Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, completely contradict his claim that stop and search was not target driven. Was forced to deny that trust in the police had been eroded since the single force was set up. Watched one of his most senior officers admit 20,000 stop and search records were lost because someone “pressed the wrong button”. Had his willingness to be scrutinised called into question as the chairman of the Scottish Police Authority, the force’s watchdog, said they want to be more involved in decision-making rather than “knowing about stuff after the event”. Accepted there has been a huge communication problem between Police Scotland, its officers and the public.Sir Stephen this week apologised to the SPA for a “misunderstanding” over inaccurate figures released to the press, which he falsely claimed Police Scotland was forced to release.
Calum Steele, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, said officers are still under the impression that they must fulfil a target for searching members of the public, despite repeated assurances to the contrary by Sir Stephen.
Conservative MSP Margaret Mitchell said: “This is rather breathtaking, chief constable. You’re the chief constable.
“The responsibility for communicating with the rank and file from the top down rests with you. Clearly there has been a huge communication problem here.”
Sir Stephen said stop and search was a “complicated matter” and that there were some “training issues” with officers which needed to be addressed.
But he said confidence levels in the police remained “high, in the 80s” and there had not been a drop as a result of the stop and search.