Online Safety Bill

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by jfman

The majority of complaints are against Humza Yousaf or JK Rowling. None of which are being pursued. Make of that what you will.

If this is the case it sounds like the complaints system may be being used as a form of protest then.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

If this is the case it sounds like the complaints system may be being used as a form of protest then.

It’s being used by idiots, that’s what.

Poorly thought out legislation, implemented worse. Even Ministers have went on television and misrepresented what it actually says in the Act.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Sirius

So what public services will lose some of there funding to pay for all of the police time dealing with frivolous complaints potentially raised by bully's and lets face it trolls who are targeting people they just don't like or have some sort of grievance. I do understand some might be genuine but the police MUST release details of how many were not genuine or had no case to answer. Also how many police officers will be taken off front line duties to deal with the mess.

To highlight what i am getting at

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...hate-crime-law



https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...hate-crime-law



https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/...de-first-week/



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...f-new-law.html



https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...ce-jk-rowling/



My point is that this is a charter for anyone to ether raise a complaint anonymously just to tie up the police or to target someone in a grudge action similar to the Swatting occurrences in America.

Maybe the SNP will introduce a blasphemy law next with weekly stoning in town centres


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wciENFKUelY

The police say that this has had little to no effect on their ability to carry out their other duties.

It sounds like they are sorting the wheat from the chat in order that those with a genuine complaints are dealt with.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

The police say that this has had little to no effect on their ability to carry out their other duties.

It sounds like they are sorting the wheat from the chat in order that those with a genuine complaints are dealt with.

https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co....e-32540154.amp

That’s not what the police union are claiming.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

The police say that this has had little to no effect on their ability to carry out their other duties.

Thats obviously bollox, how can having to deal with over 7,000 "complaints" have no effect.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

The police say that this has had little to no effect on their ability to carry out their other duties.

It sounds like they are sorting the wheat from the chat in order that those with a genuine complaints are dealt with.

It takes time to assess 7,000 potential complaints. Unless the police had lots of people lying around doing nothing, there must be an impact.

Assuming a standard 7.5 hr working day, and you could log & deal with a complaint every 10 minutes, it would take one person just over 5 months to deal with 7,000.
To deal with them in a couple of days would take almost 80 people, so yeah, somone is lying about the effect.

[RichardCoulter]

I expect it'll be admin staff rather than actual police officers that are processing the complaints.

Nevertheless, it's interesting that the police and the police union are saying two different things.

Hopefully those abusing the new law to make a point will eventually tire of it to allow the genuine complaints to be dealt with ASAP.

Maybe they should say that those deliberately wasting police time will be appropriately dealt with.

[jfman]

So admin at the police are deciding whether stuff is a police matter or not?

Sounds like this is being taken super seriously. It still costs money.

Are people “abusing” the new law? They were told this is where to go to complain about objectionable content.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by jfman

So admin at the police are deciding whether stuff is a police matter or not?

Sounds like this is being taken super seriously. It still costs money.

Are people “abusing” the new law? They were told this is where to go to complain about objectionable content.

There are no admin staff, 23500 of them were sacked by the tories so they could say no front line staff had been lost after their brutal austerity cuts decimated actual officer numbers so it will be police officers deciding things, next time a jock calls them and they tell him no one is available the reason might be because they're all busy checking objectionable content

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

There are no admin staff, 23500 of them were sacked by the tories so they could say no front line staff had been lost after their brutal austerity cuts decimated actual officer numbers so it will be police officers deciding things, next time a jock calls them and they tell him no one is available the reason might be because they're all busy checking objectionable content

You know the Tories haven’t had a say on police staffing levels in Scotland since they last ran the pre-devolution Scottish office in 1997, right … ?

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Chris

You know the Tories haven’t had a say on police staffing levels in Scotland since they last ran the pre-devolution Scottish office in 1997, right … ?

So their admin staff leveld are the same or better as 14 years ago right

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

So their admin staff leveld are the same or better as 14 years ago right

I have no idea what the SNP or Labour have done to police admin support levels since 1997. My point is, you jumping in to blame the Tories for sacking 23,500 police admin staff is irrelevant to a discussion about whether Police in Scotland can cope with the burden imposed on them by the new Scottish hate crime legislation, which was the issue Jfman was addressing (and which you quoted in your reply). The Tories have not had the power to hire or fire anyone in the police since devolution.

[jfman]

I’ve no idea of the situation either - I was only taking on the point on a hypothetical basis.

Policing being done by admin staff would raise quite significant questions over the whole thing. It’s also not at zero cost - Paul’s calculations above on the man hours apply albeit the wages would be lower.

If there’s a subsequent referral of some/all to police or more senior staff how much time is lost in double handling?

So many questions.

[1andrew1]

Here's some data on the number of police officers in Scotland. More dedicated posters might be able to go back to 1997 and find the admin staff numbers too.


https://www.statista.com/statistics/...e-in-scotland/