Officers are Leaving Police Scotland at an Alarming Rate

Happy New Year. This is my first Scotsman column for 2026, published in today's paper (6th January).

You wouldn’t have to be much of a soothsayer to foresee hard times ahead for Scotland’s blue light services in 2026.  No crystal ball required to see that there will be no great uplift in cash come the Scottish Government's budget.

Our insatiable health services apart everyone else will be lucky to keep what they have, never mind get what they want. It will be another year of make do and mend for most.

Bad enough, but another factor is set to compound the misery. Not only do police not have the money to recruit up to their establishment figure, but Police Scotland is losing many of its officers long before their time.

A recent Freedom of Information Inquiry reveals that in the four years up to 2025, more than 200 police officers left the force in their first year of service, even before their two-year probationary period was completed.

This is bad news for a number of reasons. First, recruiting a police officer is an expensive and lengthy process, including vetting, interviewing and both academic and physical tests. Losing recruits in their first year is a dreadful waste of time and money.  

So why is it happening ? There seems a number of obvious answers. Either the job of policing was not what they expected or had been told it would be. Or during their initial training they were inadequately prepared for the rigours of street policing. I’m not talking about the college training at Tulliallan Police College, I’m talking about the street training, the mentoring and supervision of experienced tutors, so essential to build the confidence and capability of young officers.  

Of course it could be that life on the street is just too tough! Staff shortages, increased bureaucracy and paperwork can become unbearable for youngsters who don’t know the shortcuts.

And of course there’s the outside world of part time and home working to tempt young people. The flexibility and comfort of the modern workplace may be seem like a good option for a young person contemplating a life of rotating shifts and violent confrontations.

But there is another problem, quite apart from losing young officers, the police service is also losing experienced people at the other end of their service. During the same four years leading up to 2025 over 4000 officers left the service, only half of whom had reached their normal retirement time.

Of that group of nearly 2000, less than 500 had completed 30 years' service, the usual retirement point. The ability to retire, and take a pension from our public services before 30 years, is a consequence of The McLeod Remedy, a measure to address discrimination within the pension system, which also allowed officers of a certain age to retire up to five years before their traditional 30 years.  

The loss of such an experienced cohort of officers five years early is serious. Senior Cops and particularly Sergeants cannot easily be replaced.

The retention problem at both ends of the service spectrum must surely be a priority in the new year. There must surely be a better way to nurture young officers and induce experienced hands to stay. It’s another problem to add to the list. Happy new year.