Calum Steele, ex-general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation (SPF), former chairman David Hamilton, and vice chairman Brian Jones, gave evidence at the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry on Monday and condemned decisions from the Scottish Government and ex-Chief Constable Sir Iain Livingstone.
The SPF called for roadside breath tests to be replaced, and Mr Steele described the “totally dismissive” response as “institutional dishonesty”, and said Police Scotland “took ‘absence of evidence’ as ‘absence of risk’,” the inquiry heard.
Allegations that Sir Iain rejected calls for frontline officers to be given spare vaccines, refused to issue reusable rubber masks used by officers in Northern Ireland due to appearance, and refused an alternative to roadside breath-testing despite concerns about Covid-19 transmission were aired at the inquiry.
He said it was “wholly inappropriate” that frontline officers were not given priority during the vaccine rollout, and alleged that Sir Iain refused to allow officers to use spare jabs, saying: “It’s bad optics,” the inquiry heard.
Police officers may have acted as “super-spreaders” in the pandemic as expert advice was “ignored” by the Scottish Government and the ex-chief constable of Police Scotland, an inquiry heard.
