Listen
Police officer quarterly strength to December 31, 2008
03/03/2009
Scotland's Chief Statistician today published statistics on police officer quarterly strength which give the number of full-time equivalent police officers employed by the eight Scottish police forces.
The key findings of the statistics are:
- There were 16,675 police officers (full-time equivalent) in Scotland on December 31, 2008, the highest level ever recorded
- Police officer numbers have increased by 149 full-time equivalent (FTE) officers (+0.9per cent) in the last quarter, from September 30, 2008, and by 409 (+2.5 per cent) in the last year, from December 31, 2007
Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff.
This is the second publication of police quarterly strength statistics as Official Statistics. The first was published on December 2, 2008. Prior to this publication figures were collated by the Scottish Government and released through responses to Parliamentary Questions and by depositing the figures in the Scottish Parliamentary Library.
The statistics are based upon quarterly returns made by Scottish police forces to the Scottish Government.