Rank-and-file police yesterday appealed to MSPs for more officers on the beat.

And the Scottish Police Federation played down claims that a vastly greater police role could be played by civilian support staff.

Holyrood’s justice committee is holding an inquiry into policing and took evidence from several leading figures yesterday.

The SPF has over 16,000 members, more than 98% of all officers in Scotland.

General secretary Joe Grant underlined the need to deliver the Scottish Government’s pledge of 1000 more officers, while calling for a wider look at the role of the service.

“My point is that we absolutely need 1000 additional officers right now to allow us to undertake that review,” he said.

Alasdair Gillies, secretary of the SPF’s inspectors’ central committee, said, “If you speak to the public and ask them what they want, they want capacity so that when they open their curtains and walk down the high street, they see a visible police presence.”

He added, “Without any shadow of a doubt, members of the public want to see police officers where it matters to them on the streets, providing public reassurance, a safety net, a comfort blanket.”

Mr Gillies added that in 29 years in the job he came across more crime on the beat than he did patrolling in a car.

“It actually does work and the public do like to see police on the beat,” he added.

Written evidence submitted on behalf of the federation said that a survey it carried out last year found that 82% of officers who responded said there were “far too few” or “too few” officers in their area.

As a result, 39.5% felt the police provided only an “average” service to the public and 34.4% thought it a “poor” or “very poor” service,

Mr Grant added, “Often when we arrive at an incident we are told that we are too late and can’t spend sufficient time making quality inquiries into the public’s concerns.”

Mr Grant added this was not a case of a return to the Dixon of Dock Green days in the 1960s when officers “roamed about aimlessly.”

He added, “We’re talking about structured patrolling.”

Although the federation accepts that community wardens have a role to play, it gave a guarded response to any increase in their duties.

“We don’t have a negative sense of community wardens, but policing roles as they exist are for police officers,” Mr Grant said.

David Mulhern, chief executive of the new Scottish Police Service Authority, called for a wider role for civilians, such as taking statements from witnesses.

But Mr Grant played down the idea that a significantly wider spread of duties could be taken on by civilian staff, saying, “The reality is that overwhelmingly jobs that can be done by support staff are being done at the moment.”

The committee later heard from the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents who said the resources issue could undermine the force’s pledge to protect the public.

National president Clive Murray said, “The promise is that every Scottish community should feel safe and reassured, but it may be that we can’t do that with the resources that we have.”

Chief Supt Murray also raised questions over the advantage to the force of transferring court escort duties to private sector firm Reliance.

The committee had heard this released about 250 officers from this work.

But he said, “There has been some benefit, but in reality it has been marginal, because I know of one sheriff court where there will be 10 officers within the court providing a policing response inside the building.”

Colin McKerracher, the president of the Association of Chief Police Constables in Scotland (ACPOS), told MSPs that demands on the police had increased.

He said the use of mobile phones meant there were now more calls to forces about incidents. New laws had also created more work for the police, but resources had not risen in line with the increase in demands.

Mr McKerracher said, “We are always in a position on a day-to-day basis of prioritising resources to meet demand.”

However the Chief Inspector of Constabulary Paddy Tomkins said if forces were to rely solely on the presence provided by officers on the street to prevent crime, then they were “doomed to fail” because there would never be enough officers.

Mr Tomkins said, “There are other means by which the perceived benefit of visible policing can be achieved.”

And he said, “If we rely purely on the proximity of police officers and visibility to deter crime then we are doomed to fail because of the geography of Scotland.

“That’s just the way it is unless you devote the entire resources of the Scottish Government to policing, which is not possible.”

He said he believed what the public wanted was “that reassuring presence in a broad sense.”

And he argued communities found that reassurance from having the same community police officer, who they could build up a relationship with.

“What they want is continuity and a degree of stability in their local policing,” he said.

“It’s not about the numbers—they would rather have one person they know than six people, or who changed on a regular basis.”

Assistant Inspector of Constabulary Malcolm Dickson said there were often more police on the streets than the public were aware of.

He said, “It’s probably wrong to think only of community policing as a uniformed visible presence on the street.

“So many of the others are engaged in community work as well, and not necessarily in uniform, whether it is CID inquiring into the break-in to your house, whether it is the drugs squad trying to track down local dealers.

“All these things go on in communities and this is as much policing as the uniformed officer on the street corner.”

*Dundee-based MSP Marlyn Glen said yesterday that communities across Tayside deserve to know about the future numbers of police on their streets, but Tayside Police said the question is not easy to answer.

Ms Glen has obtained figures showing that the strength of the region’s force at the end of the last financial year was the lowest since March 2004.

The force has also been losing dozens of experienced officers to retirement, a trend which is expected to continue for the next few years.

So far this year 43 new officers have been recruited, and Mrs Glen wants to know whether they will count towards Tayside’s “fair share” of the extra 1000 promised for Scotland by the Government.

Mrs Glen said, “The justice minister (Kenny MacAskill) is being given detailed information on current and future trends in police numbers in Tayside Police in the questions submitted.

“The people of Dundee and Tayside expect and deserve no less than a detailed reply to these questions.”

In a string of questions tabled at Holyrood, Mrs Glen is asking the Government how many officers will be added to the Tayside force’s strength of 1141 as at March 2007.

Mrs Glen added, “Six months has passed since the election, and we still don’t know how many more police there will be in the city and the region, and whether recent recruits will count as part of the Tayside’s ‘fair share’.”

Putting an additional 1000 officers on Scotland’s streets was one of the key pledges made by the new Scottish Government, and it has since emerged that Tayside’s share should be 72 new bobbies.

But ministers have come under repeated criticism since it emerged that the promise included retention and redeployment as well as recruitment.

Tayside Police said it is “constantly looking at ways” to maximise the number of frontline officers available.

It also confirmed it will have 12 new officers starting next week, comprising seven transfers from other forces and five probationers.