Alex Salmond’s case for closing police station front counters across Scotland is based on inaccurate information that is out of date. The First Minister has justified shutting the doors of stations based on the number of people using them but some of the footfall figures used by Alex Salmond date back to 2009 – before more than 60 were either closed completely or had their hours reduced.
It has also emerged that for some rural stations, a proper analysis was not even conducted to determine how well they were used by the public.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said this means the First Minister’s case for closing police stations to the public is based on flawed information several years out of date. She has now called on Alex Salmond to halt controversial plans to shut 65 police station front counters in communities across Scotland.
The First Minister has previously played down the significance of the public being able to walk in to their local police station to report a crime or to speak to an officer, insisting they can contact police using social media or by telephone.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson MSP said: “Alex Salmond has based his entire case for closing police stations to the public on the number of people walking through the front door.
“He points to footfall figures taken by the police over a four week period to justify his case for front desk closures.
“Yet, now we find from internal police documents that his figures are inaccurate, with some dating as far back as 2009.
“And the police’s own consultation document admits there was ‘no data available’ for how many people were using some rural stations.
“The SNP insisted the creation of a single police force would protect the frontline, but now we have a First Minister set to close police counters using out of date information that may not have been right in the first place.
“Alex Salmond needs to step in and halt these front desk closures immediately to protect communities across Scotland.”
