Scottish Police Federation head says officers are encouraged not to arrest people because there aren’t enough cells.
MOSCOW: Police in Scotland are being urged not to detain people due to a shortage of prison cells, Scottish Police Federation head David Kennedy said, according to Sputnik/RIA Novosti, citing Scottish news portal Daily Record.
“The criminal justice system changed. What’s happened is officers are encouraged not to arrest people. That’s the reality … They don’t have the capacity anymore to arrest the amount of people they used to arrest,” Kennedy was quoted as saying by Daily Record.
The report noted that the number of arrests leading to detention has decreased by 15,451 over the past year.
According to the newspaper, many police stations have closed since the formation of a unified police service in Scotland in 2013, and those that have opened since then do not have cells.
