The ill-conceived plans by Labour and the SNP for a single Scottish police force have been comprehensively undermined and should be abandoned. The whole process has been discredited and should be replaced by an impartial independent review of the future shape of Scottish policing.

This was the call made today by the Scottish Liberal Democrats following further criticism of the single police force idea from the Scottish Police Federation. The Liberal Democrats have been campaigning vigorously against the plans for a single Scottish police force.

Commenting following yet more criticism of the plans from rank and file police officers, and the lodging of a highly critical motion for debate at the Scottish Police Federation’s annual conference in Aviemore next week, Liberal Democrat Justice spokesperson Robert Brown said:

“The SNP’s policy on a single police force is in tatters. It has been castigated by the Association of Chief Police Officers of Scotland (ACPOS), pulled to pieces by COSLA and now it has been battered by police officers in the Scottish Police Federation. This is perhaps not surprising for a plan whose financial figures were widely condemned from within the police force and had to be done all over again.

“The whole process just does not carry credibility. The Labour party must be ruing the day they so hastily jumped into bed with the SNP on this issue.

“Liberal Democrats have opposed this unsuitable idea from the beginning. It is becoming clearer by the day that we were right to do so.

“We are the only main party who oppose plans for a single police force. It would be bad for policing, bad for democracy, bad for communities and bad for Scotland.

"If the new Scottish Government forge ahead with these flawed plans, 3000 police officers could be lost on local streets

“The SNP and Labour must abandon these defective plans for a single national police force immediately – and start listening to police officers at the coalface. Instead we must see a commitment to an independent and proper review on the future shape of Scottish policing.”