Police Scotland is the second largest police force in the United Kingdom with the greatest geographical coverage. It has an operating model where their 17,234 (full time equivalent) police officer resources (as of 31 December 2020) are split over three tiers.
At the core there is a local tier of 13 policing divisions grouped into three policing commands. This local tier is then supplemented by specialist resources from regional and national tiers including Specialist Crime Division (SCD), Operating Support Division (OSD), Contact, Command and Control Division (CCCD), Criminal Justice Services Division (CJSD) and Custody Division (CD).
Using Police Scotland policing division boundaries, police officer numbers and population estimates for 2019, the maps below explore the geography of Police Scotland’s policing commands, divisions and subdivisions along with their associated police officer resources.
Commands
There are three policing command areas in Scotland. Each area consists of their own area/region resources and the local policing of their constituent divisions. Each area can also be supplemented from the 1,845 national police officer resources.
Divisions
There are 13 policing divisions in Scotland. Each has a unique letter identifier and geographically align with one or more local authorities.
The maps below show the number of local police officer resources by absolute number and by proportion per 100,000 of a command area’s 2019 population estimate.
Subdivisions
Each policing division is further divided into subdivisions. There are 52 subdivisions in total in Scotland. No single data set was found of the geographic boundaries of these subdivisions. The table below shows their names, unique identifiers and numbers.
| Division | Subdivision | Number |
|---|---|---|
| North East (A) | Aberdeenshire North (AP), Aberdeenshire South(AV), Aberdeen City North (AK), Aberdeen City South (AU) and Moray (AE) | 5 |
| Forth Valley (C) | Clackmannanshire (CA), Falkirk (CF) and Stirling (CS) | 3 |
| Tayside (D) | Angus (DE), Dundee (DC) and Perth and Kinross (DP) | 3 |
| Edinburgh (E) | North East (ED), North West (EN), South East (EC) and South West (ES) | 4 |
| Greater Glasgow (G) | East Dunbartonshire (GJ), East Renfrewshire (GC), Glasgow City Centre (GP), Glasgow East (GK), Glasgow North (GF), Glasgow North East (GN), Glasgow North West (GU), Glasgow South East (GD) and Glasgow South West (GA) | 9 |
| The Lothians and Scottish Borders (J) | East Lothian (JE), Midlothian (JL), Scottish Borders (JB) and West Lothian (JG) | 4 |
| Renfrewshire and Inverclyde (K) | Inverclyde (KC), Paisley (KA) and Renfrew (KB) | 3 |
| Argyll and West Dunbartonshire (L) | Mid-Argyll, Kintyre, Oban, Lorn and the Islands (LB), South Argyll, Helensburgh, Lomond, Bute and Cowal (LD) and West Dunbartonshire (LA) | 3 |
| Highlands and Islands (N) | Inverness (NA), North Highlands (NE), Orkney (NK), Shetland (NL), South Highlands (NB) and Western Isles (ND) | 6 |
| Fife (P) | Central (PA), East (PB) and West (PD) | 3 |
| Lanarkshire (Q) | East Kilbride, Cambuslang and Rutherglen (QA), Hamilton & Clydesdale (QB), Monklands and Cumbernauld (QG) and Motherwell, Wishaw and Bellshill (QE) | 4 |
| Ayrshire (U) | East Ayrshire (UC), North Ayrshire (UA) and South Ayrshire (UD) | 3 |
| Dumfries and Galloway (V) | Dumfriesshire (VA) and Galloway (VG) | 2 |
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