SENIOR police officers have joined other ranks in expressing concern about the use of Scottish officers to bolster numbers in Northern Ireland for the marching season.
The Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (Asps) backed the decision by Chief Constable Sir Stephen House to respond to the mutual aid response from the Police Service of Northern Ireland by sending around 100 officers as part of 650 from across the UK.
But the senior officers also backed the concerns of the Scottish Police Federation that this should not be a cover for cuts in police numbers in Ulster or elsewhere. The Asps said: "Police numbers have been cut in the UK, except in Scotland.
"Maybe the UK Government needs to think again about its spending priorities to ensure that there are sufficient police numbers to meet the known operational challenges facing policing."
The Superintendents share the view of the federation that such support should not be at the expense of maintaining numbers on the ground in Northern Ireland, where there has been a dramatic scaling down of numbers since the height of the troubles.
Chief Superintendent David O'Connor, President of Asps, said: "I support the operational decision of the Chief Constable to provide aid to PSNI."
He said the challenge and dangers that Scottish police officers will face in Northern Ireland must not be underestimated. "It is a different policing environment with the potential for Scottish police officers to face the use of firearms or incendiary devices when they are trying to keep people safe," he said.
He said one of the benefits of a single police service in Scotland is that it is now considerably easier to provide this type of specialist mutual aid without significant impact on our ability to deliver local policing.
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