Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has claimed that the Scottish government/SNP were on target to reach their election promise of 1000 police officers by 2011. There are, however, some serious issues regarding these new young officers. One of which was described in an earlier post by the British National Party Scotland news team (see link at end of post).

The young recruits that are making up these numbers of “new” officers now have a new cause for concern.

Strathclyde police are reportedly receiving weekly reports on criminal gangs that are attempting to infiltrate the police force through social networking sites i.e. Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.

Young and inexperienced new recruits are leaving themselves vulnerable to this sort of technological criminal activity and have been warned against writing personal information on such sites.

As criminal networks are aiming to take advantage of the latest police recruitment initiatives to infiltrate the police force.

Who knows what sort of police officers they are recruiting in order to meet the SNP manifesto promise!

Detective Chief Inspector Alan Gall, head of the force’s Counter Corruption Unit, said when speaking about criminal organisations:

“Their desire to protect their finances is so great now. They see opportunities within the huge recruitment drive within the service.

“They will recognise that there’s an opportunity there to put individuals into the service.”

Gall also hinted at the large numbers of new younger recruits who have “less life experience” and are particularly vulnerable to corruption – this is also something criminal gangs were looking to exploit.

Officers have been issued with guidelines warning them about using such social networking sites as described above.

Gall added: “They need to be mindful. They can be damaging to the reputation of the service and to their own personal circumstances.”

In the first quarter of 2009, 17,048 police officers are in the police force in Scotland. In 2008, 15 Strathclyde officers and staff members were reported to the procurator fiscal facing charges of corruption.

Article – SNP Pledge Could Put Lives At Risk With Newbie Recruits In High Gang Areas