More money for police

Senior officers are concerned about police numbers

Justice Minister Jim Wallace has pledged an additional £9m for Scotland's eight police forces.

The new money is aimed at recruiting an extra 300 officers following concerns over staffing levels.

Mr Wallace officially announced the funding during a visit to the Strathclyde Police training centre in Glasgow where he met 35 new recruits in their first week of training.

Speaking on BBC Good Morning Scotland, Mr Wallace said: "It is £8.9m of new money and it will be distributed through each of the eight Scottish police forces.

Jim Wallace: Money for more recruits

"That will enable Scottish police forces in total to employ and recruit more than 300 new police officers.

"There is also part of the money going to the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan to make sure they can actually be trained."

He said it was up to chief constables how they spent the money and he went on to meet them at the annual meeting of the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland in Nairn.

"They have made it clear over a number of meetings and they do want additional resources in order to be able to recruit," the minister added.

'Excellent news'

John Orr, chief constable of Strathclyde, Scotland's biggest force, said the £3.7m allocated to him would lead to 200 extra officers.

"When you set such additional resources against a background of falling crime within this force area, it is quite clearly excellent news for the police and the community we serve," he added.

Answering criticism that the number of officers would still not match 1997's level, Mr Wallace responded: "The executive has established a Scottish drugs enforcement agency and that will allow for an additional 100 officers until we are talking about something like 400 more officers.

"I think anyone would accept that the battle against drugs is a very important part of policing in Scotland today and ... that should take us above the level that it was at the end of December 1997."

Officers shortfall

Lack of money and fewer police on the beat had been highlighted as key areas of concern at last month's Scottish Police Federation conference.

Senior officers complained about trying to cope with a shortfall of at least 400 officers.

The conference also heard that the latest figures showed that recorded crime had risen by 1% - the second consecutive increase.

This included a rise of 11% in non-sexual violent crime and almost a fifth of those involved an offensive weapon.