Police deserve praise

If, as some believe, you can judge a country by its police force, then Scotland has just taken a significant and brave step forward in enhancing its image. The announcement by Strathclyde Police that it has set up a counter-corruption unit to investigate a rising tide of allegations against police is good news on several fronts. For a start, the idea of law enforcers being as crooked as the criminals they are trying to catch sends a shiver down the spine. Ingrained dislike and mistrust of the police may be endemic among those who fear discrimination, detection or being seen as informants, but to the vast majority of the public, the idea of a bent copper is a moral affront. Despite decades of police miscreants in fiction and on screen, Scots remain remarkably uncynical about their law enforcers, and - we believed until now - with reason.