Police Scotland: Hundreds of officers leaving after less than 5 years

Police Scotland data shows that 543 officers quit between 2021 and 2025 having served for less than half a decade. This includes 201 who gave up the job after less than 12 months.

In the same period of time, 4,750 officers from all levels of service left Police Scotland - of these, 670 had served between 20 and 25 years, 1,945 between 25 and 30 years, and 444 had served for more than 30 years.

Scottish Labour, who obtained the figues through a freedom of information request, said the data showed officers were being “pushed to breaking point”.

Katy Clark MSP, the party’s community safety spokeswoman, said: “Police officers put themselves in harm’s way to protect our communities, so it is essential that this government has their backs in turn.

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“Unfortunately, after years of neglect, hardworking officers have been pushed to breaking point, with increasing demands on their time and a lack of workforce planning piling on the pressure.

“Serving in the police should be the brightest of careers, but because of the SNP’s abject mismanagement, hundreds of officers at the start of their careers are choosing to quit.”

She added that her party would “restore community policing” and free up 360 officers to return to the frontline if Labour wins next year’s Holyrood election. She said the party will do this by “cutting thousands of wasted hours in A&E departments and in our courts”.

Ms Clark added: “Taking meaningful action to help support our officers will make Police Scotland a more attractive place to work, helping to recruit and retain those who wish to make their careers serving our communities.”

Police Scotland said the "rapidly intensifying" conditions are putting staff under more pressure.

Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs said: “Officers and staff work hard to deliver for communities and keep people safe in the face of changing threats and the rapidly intensifying operational environment is placing our workforce under pressure.

“As with other organisations we have natural turnover driven largely by retirements, however we have a strong pipeline of applications for recruitment.

“We remain in discussion with the Scottish Police Authority and Scottish Government about funding allocations for 2026/27, which have a direct impact on our recruitment plans.”

The Scottish Government is due to set out its budget for 2026/27 on January 13 when parliament returns in the New Year.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said: “People are perfectly entitled to leave their employment and every sector of society has people do so.

“We have invested record funding in Police Scotland this year.

“Recorded crime is down by half since 1991 and Police Scotland took on more recruits in the last financial year than at any time since 2013, with further intakes since.”

The Scottish Government added that Scotland continues to have more police officers per capita than in England and Wales, and Police Scotland has had 19 per cent fewer officers resign in 2024 compared to 2023.