ONE of the creators of Scotland's national force has called for a new statute on police powers.

Paddy Tomkins drew up the original paper suggesting the nation's services be merged into one when he was HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary.

The former chief constable of Lothian and Borders remains a firm supporter of the reform, which he sees as painful but necessary.

However, Mr Tomkins believes the rows that have beset the single force, such as the use of stop-search, mean the time has come to define the exact powers of police officers in law.

Mr Tomkins said: "The recent causes célèbres point to the unsatisfactory position of the police having to make policy and case-by-case decisions regarding the use of basic powers and tactics.

"This includes the use of discretion, with reference to the common law, several statutes covering subjects from the protection of wild mammals to safety at sports grounds, and guidelines from the Lord Advocate.

"Government and Parliament would be doing a service to the citizens of Scotland, and to their police service, by expressing the settled will of Parliament in a new statute to clarify and circumscribe police powers.

"If those powers prove overly intrusive or, by contrast, ineffectual then they can be amended in statute and subsidiary codes of practice rather than through policy made by police commanders."

These views set Mr Tomkins at odds with both current Chief Constable, Sir Stephen House, and his main watchdog, the Scottish Police Authority (SPA). They argue ambiguity about operational accountability is healthy.

The SPA considered statute to define powers of operational policing after it investigated a now dropped policy under which armed officers would attend routine, non-life-threatening incidents.

An SPA spokeswoman said: "We found that further defining the parameters of operational policing could raise a risk that some issues consequently fall beyond scrutiny and accountability.

"Instead, we concluded that a clear accountability framework for policing already exists in Scotland, with clear statutory authority."

The SPA prefers a system of "working protocols" with the force to more statute.

Its spokeswoman added: "The recently endorsed protocol on police policy engagement is a good example of that.

"This commits Police Scotland to prior engagement with the SPA on any policy or issue likely to raise significant public interest."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "The range of statutory and common law powers police officers may use in Scotland is not - and has never been - static and it is important that the debate around police powers is informed by a variety of views.

"The Scottish Government has proposed changes in the current Criminal Justice Bill and will consider the need for further legislative change in the context of the Bonomy review of safeguards and Police Scotland's review and consultation on stop and search."

Opposition parties and activists have expressed growing concern about accountability in Police Scotland.

But Mr Tomkins believes the watchdog functions have grown to reflect the national status of the single force.

Writing in today's Herald, he said: "The fact that much of the recent debate on stop-search and armed policing has taken place at Holyrood shows that the centralising of police command has been balanced by a centralising of its accountability mechanisms.

"That this becomes national news rightly reflects that a national service is being asked to account for its methods at the heart of national democratic authority."

Mr Tomkins stressed that foreign forces were looking to Scotland with envy.

This includes the Netherlands, one of the countries with both national and local forces highlighted last week as a model for Scotland by Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser.

The Netherlands passed a law merging its 25 forces into a national one in 2013 but has been looking to Scotland for advice on how to deliver this.

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