Chief
Superintendent
Campbell
Thomson said he
had been on call when four gun-related
incidents took place in the north of the
country earlier this month.
He commanded the response to two of
the incidents which were managed by
officers at the Bilston Glen control room
in Midlothian.
The details emerged as the Scottish
Police Authority (SPA) board agreed to
close the Police Scotland control room
in Aberdeen. The controversial move is
part of a national strategy which will
see all 999 and non-emergency 101 calls
handled by service centres in Govan,
Motherwell and Bilston Glen, with three
area control rooms covering the west
(Govan), east (Bilston Glen) and north
(Dundee) of the country.
Police Scotland said the strategic
command of firearms incidents by on-
call senior officers was standard
practice.
Mr Thomson told the SPA he was
“reassured” that processes would be in
place to deal with major incidents in the
north-east of the country after the
closure of the Aberdeen control room.
He said: “Last week I was on call as the
strategic firearms commander for the
north and east of the country. During
that period, we had four firearms
incidents, which is unusual. Two in the
east which were managed by East
Overview (Bilston Glen), which I
commanded from my own home in the
north-east of Scotland.
“But it was local resources which were
deployed and dealt with those incidents
very effectively. Two other incidents,
one in Inverness which was resolved
with local officers on the ground
commanded through North Overview
(Dundee), and the other was in rural
Aberdeenshire, commanded through the
North Overview with local officers on
the ground.”
Police Scotland said every firearms
incident involved three levels of
command.
Superintendent Kirk Kinnell, head of
armed policing, said: “The strategic
command role is basically to authorise
the operation or make sure the tactics
are proportionate.
“The person with all the information
and intelligence would be in the control
room and the operational commander
on the ground would have that.”
He added: “The minute-to-minute
decision makers are on the ground.”
Officer