50 Police Scotland officers suspended over alleged crimes against women and girls
Calls for greater vetting and profiling of police recruits have been made
Fresh calls have been made for Scotland’s national police force to reintroduce home visits and psychometric testing as part of its vetting processes for recurits as it emerged up to 50 serving officers are currently suspended over allegations of violence against women and girls.
Chief constable Jo Farrell said the allegations were now being investigated and that she anticipated more officers would face sanctions over their behaviour in the wake of a spate of former officers being convicted for sexual offences.
Ms Farrell said that approximately 8,000 officers were still to be “re-vetted” for their roles following a change in regulations earlier this year.
She also revealed that a review into the circumstances surrounding the case of Alan Greer - a police officer who attacked at least nine women over 14 years, five of whom were sex workers - was underway, and that parts of it would be made public.
Ms Farrell said: “We've got in the order of between currently 40 and 50 people currently suspended, so not at work, who are being investigated for offences that relate to violence against women and girls. Those investigations are at various stages.”
She said that between 300 and 400 officers had now been re-vetted as part of new rules brought in following the murder of Sarah Everard by Metropolitan Police officer, Wayne Couzens. She said the rules would make it easier to “exit people” found to be unsuitable to serve in the force.
She told BBC Scotland: “It's only now during this year there has been a change in the vetting regime. So for the first time, if an officer fails their vetting, they can be exited from policing.
“So that is a very recent change, and a welcome change from my point of view. Up until that point there were no opportunities to exit people from the organisation."
“My focus is on identifying where there is wrongdoing, criminality, particularly in relation to violence against women and girls and if that has been committed by our officers and our staff, that we identify it and we ensure that those people feel the full force of the law.”
But David Kennedy, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, called on the force to adopt a more preventative approach by strengthening the ways in which it carries out vetting.
“We’ve called for the reintroduction of home visits. Inspectors used to call at the homes of potential recruits, sometimes without notice, so they could see them in their own environment and get a flavour of their envirionment,” he explained. They also used to visit the people who provided references at their own home to make sure they knew the person, and ask what they were like.
“But that was stopped, and it’s now all done on paper. I’d be concerned over whether they really know the person they’re interviewing is who they say they are.
“They should also be doing psychometric testing - it’s already done for senior officers. They need to do more to make sure they’re getting the right people coming into the police service.”
Mr Kennedy stressed that members of the public should have trust that the overwhelming majority of officers were law abiding and committed to keeping people safe.
A BBC Scotland investigation found Greer, who took his own life in May at the age of 47, had repeatedly attacked and attempted to murder women over the course of a 14 year period.
Further inquiries uncovered that Greer had passed vetting checks to join the legacy Strathclyde Police force in 2009, despite having two reports of criminal behaviour against women on his record.
Ms Farrell said the recently launched review would aim to identify whether gaps in the vetting process contributed to Greer's offending being allowed to continue.
She explained: “It is an ongoing investigation, but it is also subject to an independent review to find out whether there were any opportunities to identify his offending earlier and whether there is any learning from that.
“What is important is that we get that independent review, that colleagues elsewhere in the United Kingdom are looking at that case to identify whether there were any opportunities that were missed.”
Greer is one of several former officers to be exposed as rapists this year alone.
In July, Cameron Ross was jailed for 10 years after he was found guilty of raping two women and threatening to kill another in Stornoway and in Inverness over a 10-year period.
Ross, who was also placed on the sex offenders register following his conviction. was suspended from Police Scotland in June 2022, after the allegations were reported to the force, and he resigned in June 2026.
The 39 year-old has since launched an appeal against both his conviction and his sentence.
Last month, former police sergeant Campbell Petrie, 50, was found guilty of a series of sex attacks on women between 2006 and 2023.
Petrie - who was first arrested following a complaint by one of his victims 17 years ago – was convicted of two counts of rape and a number of other charges including physical and sexual abuse towards two women in Glasgow.
The 50 year-old, who was a serving officer at the time of the offences, was suspended by Police Scotland after being charged in December 2023. He retired from the force two years later.
Petrie was found guilty of indecently assaulting one of the women while she was asleep and on various occasions between 2006 and 2009. He was convicted of raping the second woman on multiple occasions between 2011 and 2014.
Another officer, Jay Skivington, was sentenced in October to 160 hours of unpaid work and given a five-year non-harassment order for violent offences against a woman.
The 24 year-old previously admitted a course of abusive behaviour. The offences happened between December 2023 and October 2024 in the Portlethen and Aberdeen areas and elsewhere.
Earlier this week, Rape Crisis Scotland said the number of suspended officers facing allegations of violent offences against women highlighted the need for improvements around vetting, safeguarding, and complaints procedures.
Nicola Love, the charity’s external affairs manager, said: “We have seen the worst of what can happen when safeguarding processes are not followed, vetting is not as strong as it should be, or complaints are not investigated properly.
“What is particularly challenging is that we are seeing prolonged investigations and wider justice system delays which prevent processes from concluding until years after the initial report has been made.”
She added: “Survivors must have confidence that their complaints will be taken seriously and investigated fully, and delays across the justice system can be a significant barrier to that.”