I had the privilege yesterday of being one of four
Bloody Scotland crime writers given a tour of the new Police Scotland Crime Campus at Gartcosh. Ian Rankin, Alex Grey, Chris Brookmyre and myself were made very welcome, and were provided with the sort of information that we need to keep our books up-to-date in terms of the way the single police force in Scotland now operates. The visit was organised by Tom Halpin of
SACRO (who took the photo above).
The Crime Campus building is architecturally stunning, and is DNA-themed, with walls (as in Alex Grey's photo above) with DNA-barcode patterns. It is the the first time that a variety of police and judicial agencies
have been under the same roof, within a purpose-built, state-of-the-art
HQ. On site are not only the new single Police Scotland
force and its forensic services, but also the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal, plus representation for HM Revenue & Customs and
the National Crime Agency. The scale of justice system collaboration at Gatcosh is leading the way in the UK, and possibly also across Europe.
The representatives of Police Scotland that we met confirmed that they are delighted to provide information to crime writers, and understand that for many of the public, their main (hopefully!) insight into the workings of the police force are via reading crime novels.
