Listening to our communities
It is vital we seek ways to understand the experiences of the public and of officers and staff, through first-hand accounts and more structured feedback - and act on what we've been told.
That's why we've re-opened the Your Police Survey for 2024-25 for members of the public to share their views.
We will also conduct a refreshed officer and staff survey in the coming months
Listening to our people
In August 2023, Police Scotland issued an internal survey giving our officers and staff the opportunity to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences related to institutional discrimination based on five themes.
- Discrimination is an issue.
- That we are taking the right steps to deal with it.
- There have been more conversations about it.
- People are comfortable using the mechanisms for reporting discrimination.
- People feel they are provided with resources to develop an understanding of institutional discrimination.
A total of 1,336 responses were received from officers and staff with results indicating that there are varying degrees of acceptance that institutional discrimination is an issue for Police Scotland.
40% of respondents agreed that institutional discrimination is an issue for Police Scotland while a slightly higher proportion of 47% disagreed.
Subgroup analysis, however, demonstrated the level of agreement is higher among those living with a physical or mental health condition (47%), women (59%), LGBTQ+ and minority ethnic people (82%).
The survey results reveal that female, minority ethnic and LGBTQ+ officers and staff are more likely to agree that we have an issue with institutional discrimination, and they are more likely to have had personal experience of it.
Crucially, only half (50%) of all respondents were confident that, if reported, an instance of discrimination would be addressed.
Police Scotland acknowledges these result and the will work to improve the experiences from our people and the communities they serve.
Assistant Chief Constable Catriona Paton said: “The Chief Constable recently reaffirmed her commitment to making Police Scotland an anti-discriminatory, anti-racist service.
“To move forward on our shared Policing Together journey we will continue to listen to and understand the views of our colleagues and members of the public who experience racism and inequalities within Police Scotland and across our Scottish communities to ensure decisions on how to tackle institutional discrimination are informed by real insights that reflect the different challenges people may face.
“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.
“It is everyone’s responsibility to tackle racism and discrimination within Police Scotland.”
Read about the results in more detail in our institutional discrimination insight pack.
