G8 protection leaves police at breaking point

[struggle4progress]

KATE FOSTER
HOME AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT
[e-mail]


POLICING levels in Scotland are being plunged into crisis because of this summer’s G8 summit, with hundreds of frontline officers being taken off the streets and response times increasing to as much as 24 hours.

And senior officers fear that, despite weeks of training, community policemen in charge of tackling violent troublemakers are simply not up to the job.

Ten thousand police will be on duty or on standby when the leaders of the world’s most powerful countries meet in Gleneagles, Perthshire, from July 6 to 8. Thousands of officers have already been taken away from their ordinary duties to help with organising and contingency planning, intelligence gathering and to take part in riot training. <snip>

"Victims of crime are waiting longer for us to turn up. For non-urgent crimes - a shed being broken into or minor car crime - you might have had to wait two hours normally, but at the moment we might not be able to get there until the next day. <snip>

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=526912005