Police Scotland has scrubbed over 12,000 criminal investigations because they required excessive manpower, a report has revealed, despite several police officers arresting an elderly grandmother who allegedly breached a buffer zone in Glasgow in February.
12,014 reported crimes were not fully investigated between August 2023 and February 2025 in a new measure advanced by Police Scotland as a “proportionate response to crime”.
The protocol had been trialled first in the north-east of the nation before being extended across all Scotland. Crimes deemed “minor”, such as thefts and vandalism in which there were no leads or CCTV footage, were dropped.
It is claimed by a Police Scotland report into the measure that it “freed up an estimated 63,583 front-line police hours”. However, its author, Assistant Chief Constable Emma Bond, said that “due to the complex nature of front-line policing, it’s extremely difficult to articulate how that additional capacity has been used”.
Ms Bond insisted that “the proportionate response to crime process is not a policy of non-investigation – we are committed to investigating crime.
“Every crime report is the subject of individual assessment of threat, harm, risk, vulnerability and for proportionate lines of investigation and evidence.”
Responding to the measure, Liam Kerr, the Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary, said that “the public will be appalled that soft-touch SNP justice has resulted in thousands of crimes being written off and offenders let off without any punishment…
“We repeatedly warned at the time that this reckless scheme would confirm the SNP’s surrender to criminals.”
In the space of twelve months, the number of police officers in Scotland dropped by 400 to 16,207 by 30 June 2024, the lowest officer level in 15 years.
Despite diminishing police numbers, several officers were present for the arrest of Rose Docherty, 74, a grandmother who allegedly breached a buffer zone after holding a sign that read, “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.”
The pensioner, who was standing in the vicinity of Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, was handcuffed and taken away in a police car. She was the first person to be arrested under the Scottish buffer zones law authored by MSP Gillian Mackay that was imposed in September 2024.
Christopher McEleny, the general secretary of the Alba Party, subsequently posted on X:
In March 2024, Police Scotland told a committee hearing into buffer zones that such a law was unnecessary, affirming its previous statement “that existing powers and offences (whether statutory or common law) are sufficient to address any unlawful behaviour which may arise in the vicinity of a health care premises…
“Our engagement with participants of such protests to date has largely involved providing advice where appropriate and facilitating peaceful protest, and has not resulted in any criminality being identified.”
Police Scotland also warned that the financial costs of implementing buffer zones would inflict an inevitable “time cost” on its officers who would have to undertake training that would include an online e-learning package estimated to cost around £270,000.
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