Chamber and committees

I do not think it is just me who is concerned about that; I think that the federation was also concerned. Do you know what I am talking about?

Good morning. Fulton MacGregor’s line of questioning was helpful, because it got to the heart of what I am hearing about the job of a front-line police officer.

David Threadgold said that there is not always the opportunity to decompress after difficult situations. For example, if police officers have to deal with a very violent situation and use their batons or sprays, is there no standard response to that when they return from the incident?

You said to my colleague Ben Macpherson that the confidence to be risk positive does not yet exist among police officers. Why is that?

His Majesty’s chief inspector of constabulary, Craig Naylor, kicked off our interest in this subject when he gave compelling evidence. I am going to read it again, because it is important to establish where we started from. When I listened to him, I felt that he was describing a crisis in police mental health, which is why we are here asking questions today. Do you and you senior officers accept that there is such a crisis, chief constable?

Based on what I have heard about the results, that is very positive.

I just wondered why we are now adopting that phrase. By definition, an officer has a warrant card. You will tell me if I am barking up the wrong tree. Is the definition being made because, through the reorganisation plan, you will introduce police community support officers—as England has done and which we do not have in Scotland—who do not have warrant cards?

An advert that was put out a month ago caused controversy because it said that civilians would be employed on the same salary as a police officer to do some of the jobs that police officers do. To my knowledge, we have not had such a development. I did not understand why you would want to do that. Why would you want to take the role of police officers who, by and large, are complaining about a lack of resource on the front line? I am confused by it.

You do not need to apologise. I am just being honest. I am unsure about the reason for the change in terminology. The background is that there was a subtle change to say that we will not have police officers doing the job that they used to do.

Suzanne?

Katy Miller, you mentioned that the EAP includes EMDR. I have a strong interest in mental health. A lot of people think that cognitive behavioural therapy is too basic and that EMDR could be really important, because that programme is designed to deal with trauma. Will you confirm that officers can access EMDR through the EAP?