Tayside Police’s control room is at “breaking point” with increasing numbers of uniformed beat officers being drafted in to cover civilian staff shortages, it has been claimed.
Four police officers were on duty at the same time in the Bell Street control room in Dundee at one point last weekend, with the total number over various shifts running into double figures.
A Tayside Police source said control room staffing levels are “scary” after being “cut right back to the bone”.
The source said: “The Scottish Government have tried to justify it in the past by saying it’s just people on light duties or who are pregnant that are filling in, but it’s simply not the case.
There are lots more officers being deployed in the control room and it’s a situation of permanent overtime.
“Some people have even worked in the control room, applied to become police officers and then been deployed back in the control room.
“A lot of the beat officers don’t want even to be there, they want to be on the street. Staffing levels were cut right back to the bone due to early retirement and voluntary redundancy.”
A single police force called Police Scotland will replace the country’s eight forces on April 1.
Tayside Police’s control room is at “breaking point” with increasing numbers of uniformed beat officers being drafted in to cover civilian staff shortages, it has been claimed.
Four police officers were on duty at the same time in the Bell Street control room in Dundee at one point last weekend, with the total number over various shifts running into double figures.
A Tayside Police source said control room staffing levels are “scary” after being “cut right back to the bone”.
The source said: “The Scottish Government have tried to justify it in the past by saying it’s just people on light duties or who are pregnant that are filling in, but it’s simply not the case. There are lots more officers being deployed in the control room and it’s a situation of permanent overtime.
“Some people have even worked in the control room, applied to become police officers and then been deployed back in the control room.
“A lot of the beat officers don’t want even to be there, they want to be on the street. Staffing levels were cut right back to the bone due to early retirement and voluntary redundancy.”
A single police force called Police Scotland will replace the country’s eight forces on April 1.
Its first chief constable, Stephen House, said last September that the merger could result in the loss of 3,000 support staff jobs, the majority through voluntary redundancies and early retirement packages.
George McIrvine, Unison branch secretary for Tayside Police staff, said filling control room shifts with uniformed officers was “papering over the cracks”.
He said: “The gaps are being filled with overtime, with cops coming off the street and the goodwill of people doing an extra hour or so. We are at breaking point.
“These officers should be on the beat. I just don’t know the rationale behind it.
“We have been told for two years by the employers and the Scottish Government that they are not backfilling posts, but they are.
“There is backfilling in control rooms, in custody and in project work. We are not getting the service the veneer of effective policing is cracking.”