Monitoring and Evaluation Tools for Assessing Police Interventions in Fragile and Conflict Affected States: Findings and Recommendations

Scotland has been described as becoming ‘more explicitly community-focused in its policy discourse’ with the police promoting community policing as a core strategy to engage with problems of crime and disorder. This review has demonstrated the importance of a well-defined Scottish policing approach, underpinned by key community- focused objectives. Whilst there is an emerging and identifiable Police Scotland ‘brand’, a ‘Scottish policing approach’ is less well defined. A literature review provided a conflicting image of Scottish policing with British and International media sources often more critical and negative than sentiments expressed in wider public opinion. The benefits of international policing assistance are manifold, and actually contribute to the refinement of the Police Scotland brand and reinforce a “Scottish policing approach” both locally and internationally. Overall this activity provides a high level potential return on investment for individual officers, local forces, their communities and the wider UK, which far outweigh any limitations. International policing assistance helps to define the Scottish approach as distinct from others found in the rest of the UK.