WIREDGOV

An Official Statistics Publication for Scotland.

Scotland’s Chief Statistician has published statistics on Police Officer Quarterly Strength, which shows the number of full-time equivalent police officers employed by Police Scotland.

The key findings of the statistics are:

• there were 17,259 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in Scotland on 31 December 2019
• police officer numbers increased by 3 FTE officers (+0.02%) in the last quarter from 30 September 2019
• police officer numbers increased by 84 FTE officers (+0.5%) in the last year from 31 December 2018
• this is an increase of 1,025 FTE police officers (+6.3%) from the 16,234 FTE police officers recorded at 31 March 2007

These figures were produced by professionally independent statistical staff free from any political interference, in accordance with professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.
 
Background

The full statistical publication can be accessed at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/police-officer-quarterly-strength-statistics-scotland-31-december-2019/

The quarterly bulletin reports the number of police officers employed by Police Scotland as at 31 December 2019.

Further information on Crime and Justice statistics can be accessed at: https://www.gov.scot/collections/crime-and-justice-statistics/ 

Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff – more information on the standards of official statistics in Scotland can be accessed at: https://www.gov.scot/statistics/