Policing Together

People from all communities must know that when we talk about keeping people safe, we mean them. Everyone must feel able to speak to the police. We want people from all communities to see policing as a potential career.

Policing Together puts integrity, fairness, respect and a commitment to upholding human rights at the heart of all we do.

Police Scotland is determined to build an inclusive service, free from racism, sexism, discrimination of any kind, for all our communities.

To that end, we’re empowering leaders to build inclusive teams; improving education around equality laws; focusing on our values and standards and delivering a clear and consistent message that there’s no place in Police Scotland for prejudice.

Injustice and discrimination are wrongs with deep roots in history and we are committed to addressing it with persistence and focus.

Change must be felt through improved experiences of our officers and staff and the public we serve.

We know from listening to our people, the communities we serve, from independent reviews and inspections, from legal cases and from our own conduct processes that institutional racism, sexism, misogyny and discrimination is a reality both in society and for Police Scotland.

Discrimination should have no place in society and no place in policing.

Policing has an important duty and opportunity to lead change to improve the experiences of our communities.

Policing Together provides a focal point and platform for the action we are taking to champion equality, diversity and inclusion, tackle all forms of discrimination within Police Scotland and improve our service to all communities.

Police Scotland’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy outlines the actions and improvement that are being driven forward under Policing Together, which are organised into four strategic themes - leadership; training; professionalism and prevention; and communications.

• Leadership - Leaders within Police Scotland have a professional, moral and personal duty to drive the change that is required under the Policing Together Strategy. Police Scotland is investing in training for all leaders in our service. Every leader is our service is being given clear direction and expectations of how we expect them to lead that change.
  
  
• Training – Providing relevant and appropriate equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) training for our workforce is a fundamental part of our Policing Together strategy. We have developed training packages that use scenarios based on the real-life experience of our officers and staff.
  
  Additionally significant investment is being made in training all leaders within Police Scotland.
  
  
• Professionalism and prevention - Significant work has been undertaken to ensure officers and staff understand the expectations that the service and the public have in them, this includes raising awareness of our standards of professional behaviour and the publication of gross misconduct cases outcomes.
  
  
• Communication – Communication plays an important role in showcasing the positive behaviours we want to encourage in policing and expose those that have no place in our service.
  
  We use communication to re-emphasise the importance of adhering to our values and standards and encourage people to call out unacceptable behaviour wherever they see it.
  
  We seek to build knowledge and understanding among our people of important cultural and religious events that are important to the people of Scotland. We know that sharing/celebrating these events on our social media accounts help build trust in our service.
  
  We also communicate work being carried out under Policing Together with our people and with the public.

Strategy and implementation plan

The Policing Together Strategy and implementation plan can be accessed from Police Scotland Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2022/26

Independent Review Group

An Independent Review Group, chaired by Robin Iffla, was commissioned in response to recommendation 18 of Lady Elish Angiolini’s Independent Review of Complaints Handling, Investigation and Misconduct Issues in relation to policing and was permitted access to all materials, documents, and data presented to Police
Scotland’s Policing Together Strategic Oversight Board. Additionally, the IRG had autonomy to request further information and consultation with officers and staff as necessary to fully understand, scrutinise and provide feedback on Police Scotland’s EDI activity.

Police Scotland has now received the IRG’s closure report which was discussed at the Scottish Police Authority Board meeting on Thursday, 22 August, 2024 and can be read here.