The Complete Guide to Police divisions in Scotland

Police Scotland is the single service responsible for policing in Scotland, and the Scottish Government confirms it is held to account by the Scottish Police Authority. Even as one national service, day-to-day policing is delivered locally through 13 geographic divisions, each with its own letter identifier.

If you’re applying to become a police constable, knowing this structure matters. Interview panels expect you to understand where you might be posted, how local policing is organised, and who leads what. If you simply need to find your nearest station or the right team to contact, the same structure tells you where to look.

This guide sets out what the divisions are, how they group into three commands, what the letters mean, and how to use that information in practice.

What Police Scotland divisions are

Police Scotland was established on 1 April 2013. The Scottish Government points to the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 as the statutory basis for the single service, which replaced the previous regional arrangements across Scotland. The Scottish Institute for Policing Research notes that the service covers around 28,168 square miles, roughly a third of the United Kingdom’s landmass, including urban, rural, island and remote communities.

Beneath the national service sit the local policing divisions. There are 13 of them. Each has a unique divisional identifier (a single letter) and each aligns geographically with one or more local authority areas. Each division is headed by a Chief Superintendent, and divisional commanders are described as officers who came up through the ranks in that part of the country.

The 13 divisions are not the whole picture. Police Scotland also runs national and specialist functions, including the Specialist Crime Division, which sit outside the geographic structure. When this guide says “division”, it means a local geographic division unless stated otherwise.

How to read the Police Scotland divisions map

Any Police Scotland divisions map works on three levels: command, division, then subdivision or area command. Getting those levels straight saves a lot of confusion.

Local policing sits under a deputy chief constable. The country is split into three geographic regions, North, East and West, each headed by an assistant chief constable. The 13 divisions are distributed across those three commands, and each command can draw on its own regional resources plus national resources when needed.

Below divisional level, each division is split into area command units under chief inspectors, then into wards under inspectors, mirroring the 353 wards used in local authority elections. Every ward has a local policing team for response and a problem-solving team for community work.

A structure reference published on 5 April 2021 counted 52 subdivisions across the 13 divisions, each with a two-letter code built from the divisional identifier. The same reference noted that it found no single dataset showing the geographic boundaries of all subdivisions, which is why most published maps stop at division level rather than showing every subdivision line.

One point worth noting for applicants: the local division letters are A, C, D, E, G, J, K, L, N, P, Q, U and V. There is no B division police station and no C3 division in the local policing structure. If you’ve searched for a B division police station or a C3 division in Police Scotland, those letters don’t appear in the published local-division lists. A D division police station does exist, because D is Tayside, covering Angus, Dundee and Perth and Kinross.

West Command: L, U, V, G, Q and K divisions

Six local divisions sit under West Command: Argyll and West Dunbartonshire (L), Ayrshire (U), Dumfries and Galloway (V), Greater Glasgow (G), Lanarkshire (Q) and Renfrewshire and Inverclyde (K).

L Division covers Argyll and West Dunbartonshire, from the islands and the Kintyre peninsula down to the Clyde. Clydebank police station and Oban are listed as open to the public 24 hours a day, while several smaller L Division stations are closed to the public or operate restricted hours.

U Division is Ayrshire, covering East, North and South Ayrshire. V Division is Dumfries and Galloway, split into the Dumfriesshire and Galloway subdivisions, with the division headquarters at Cornwall Mount in Dumfries.

K Division is Renfrewshire and Inverclyde. Its three area commands are Inverclyde, Paisley and Renfrew. The Police Scotland directory for the division lists Renfrew Police Station at 14 Station Road, Paisley Police Station on Mill Street, Greenock Police Station at 160 Rue End Street and Johnstone Police Station inside Johnstone Town Hall, with Osprey House in Paisley also appearing in the division listing but closed to the public.

Q Division is Lanarkshire, covering North and South Lanarkshire through four area commands. Hamilton and Motherwell stations operate 24 hours. G Division is Greater Glasgow, covered in more detail further down.

East Command: E, P, C and J divisions

Four local divisions make up East Command: Edinburgh (E), Fife (P), Forth Valley (C) and The Lothians and Scottish Borders (J).

E Division is Edinburgh, covering the city through four area commands: North East, North West, South East and South West. Information regarding Gayfield police station in Edinburgh is not explicitly detailed within the provided divisional data.

P Division is Fife, organised into Central, East and West subdivisions. C Division is Forth Valley, covering Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling. The 2021 structure reference lists three Forth Valley subdivisions with unique identifiers: Clackmannanshire (CA), Falkirk (CF) and Stirling (CS). While Falkirk is listed as a subdivision within Forth Valley (C Division), specific details or a dedicated public contact number for a Falkirk police station are not provided in the official station directory, with 101 being the general non-emergency route.

J Division is The Lothians and Scottish Borders, with four area commands. Dalkeith police station falls under the Midlothian area command, and its published hours include a 7am to midnight pattern with two daily closures. Livingston is listed as open 24 hours.

North Command: A, D and N divisions

Three local divisions sit under North Command: Highland and Islands (N), North East (A) and Tayside (D). Between them they cover the largest geographic spread in the country, from Shetland and Orkney to Perth and Kinross.

A Division is North East, covering Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray through five area commands. Fraserburgh police station is listed under this division with opening times that vary between 9am and midnight, which is a good example of why checking before travelling matters.

D Division is Tayside. Perth City Police Station on Barrack Street is open 24 hours, with disabled parking, a hearing loop, a lift and wheelchair-friendly access. Pitlochry Police Station on Atholl Road opens Monday to Friday in two daily periods, 9am to 12.30pm and 1.30pm to 5pm.

N Division is Highland and Islands, the largest division by area. Dingwall police station is listed as open Monday to Sunday, 8am to 6pm. Fort William police station opens 7am to 10pm daily. While Kirkwall is noted as the administrative centre for Orkney, specific details regarding a dedicated Kirkwall police station serving the area command are not provided in the official listings., and Lerwick covers Shetland. Inverness Division Headquarters is recorded as having opening times that vary on weekdays, and the station is closed on Saturdays and Sundays.

Greater Glasgow (G Division): area commands and localities

G Division is Greater Glasgow, the largest division by officer numbers. Police Scotland states that Glasgow North West is one of nine area commands in the Greater Glasgow division, covering the city plus East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire.

The Glasgow North West page sets out four local priorities: crime, protecting vulnerable people, events and serious organised crime. Those priorities come from Police Scotland’s strategic assessment of threats and risks, plus feedback from local authorities, partners and residents through the Your Police survey, and they feed into the Glasgow City local policing plan.

Chief Inspector Karen Cameron is the local area commander for Glasgow North West. She is in charge of the response officers, community officers and officers from the criminal investigation department working in the individual localities. Those teams respond to calls and deal with local issues together rather than in isolation.

The localities listed for Glasgow North West are Hillhead, Partick East and Kelvindale, along with Victoria Park, Drumchapel, Anniesland, Garscadden and Scotstounhill. Each locality has a community policing team email address, but Police Scotland is explicit that those mailboxes are not monitored 24/7 and are not for reporting crime. Call 101 for advice or to report a crime, and 999 in an emergency.

The Lothians and Scottish Borders (J Division)

J Division covers four area commands: East Lothian, Midlothian, Scottish Borders and West Lothian. Police Scotland identifies Scottish Borders as one of those four.

The Scottish Borders page lists five priorities: protecting the most vulnerable people, reducing violence and anti-social behaviour, reducing acquisitive crime, improving road safety, and tackling serious and organised crime. As in Glasgow, these are set using strategic assessment data on threats and risks alongside feedback from councils, partners and residents through the Your Police survey, and they are published in the Scottish Borders local policing plan.

Chief Inspector David Rourke is the Scottish Borders area commander, responsible for the response officers, community officers and criminal investigation department officers working across the localities. The same caution applies to contact: local email accounts and social media channels are not monitored around the clock and must not be used to report crime.

The J Division station directory runs to a long list of dedicated station pages, including Eyemouth, Duns, Kelso, Jedburgh, Hawick, Selkirk, Galashiels, Melrose, Lauder, Peebles, West Calder, Whitburn, Armadale, Bathgate, Linlithgow, Broxburn, Livingston, Dalkeith, Bonnyrigg, Penicuik, Haddington, Tranent and Musselburgh.

Police station access by division

Police Scotland’s station-opening directory is organised under the same 13 named local divisions, so the quickest way to find a station is to identify your division first, then look up the station.

Two warnings from Police Scotland are worth taking seriously. First, opening times can change at short notice because of staffing levels or emergencies in the area. Second, some stations are not open to the public at all, which means you may need an appointment to visit. To check a station is open or to arrange an appointment, contact Police Scotland online or call 101.

A handful of stations run 24 hours and are the safest bet if you need in-person access outside office hours. The published list includes Clydebank and Oban in L Division, Stewart Street and Govan in G Division, Hamilton and Motherwell in Q Division, Greenock and Paisley in K Division, and Livingston in J Division.

For contact, the rule is simple. Call 999 if someone is in danger, you need help now, or a serious incident is happening or about to happen. Call 101 for everything else, including non-urgent enquiries and reporting a crime after the fact. British Sign Language users can use the 999 BSL service. Police Scotland’s control room operation handles over four thousand 101 non-emergency calls and two thousand 999 emergency calls daily, across more than three million contacts a year, routed through three Area Control Rooms.

How local divisions set priorities and serve communities

Each division and area command publishes a local policing plan, and the priorities in it are not chosen arbitrarily. They come from a strategic assessment of threats and risks, combined with feedback from local authorities, partners and residents gathered through the Your Police survey, community meetings and phone calls from residents.

Community policing teams work with partners to prevent crime, address local concerns and find long-term solutions. The Inverness and Perth and Kinross pages list the kinds of issues to raise with them: neighbourhood or community disputes, suspected drug use or dealing, information about possible criminal activity, anti-social behaviour, non-urgent enquiries, and community safety advice.

The survey carries real weight. Police Scotland reported 20,024 responses to the Your Police 2021/2022 survey over 12 months, including more than 50,000 free-text responses, with 6,341 responses in March 2022 alone. Average public confidence in local police for April 2021 to March 2022 was 39%, rising to 40% among the 104 organisations that responded. Police Scotland says this feedback led to actions including enhanced local police presence at identified locations, particularly during evenings and after dark.

For applicants, this is useful interview material. A candidate who can explain how a local policing plan is built, and how response officers, community officers and criminal investigation department colleagues work side by side in a locality, is demonstrating genuine knowledge of the service rather than reciting a list of division names.

Governance, history and leadership

The Scottish Government sets the strategic police priorities, supported by the Scottish Police Authority’s strategic police plan and Police Scotland’s annual plan. The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 provides the statutory basis for the arrangement, after the Scottish Parliament approved the bill on 27 June 2012.

One of the stated aims of reform was to safeguard frontline policing by creating designated local senior officers for every council area, with a statutory duty to work with councils to shape local services. The other was more equal access to national and specialist expertise, such as major investigation teams and firearms teams, wherever they are needed. That logic explains the structure you see today: local divisions for everyday policing, supplemented by regional and national resources.

Chief Constable Jo Farrell leads Police Scotland, having taken up post on 9 October 2023. Below her, the command structure runs through deputy chief constables and assistant chief constables to the chief superintendents who head the divisions. As of August 2023, the executive team was recorded as including three deputy chief constables, a deputy chief officer and ten assistant chief constables; treat those as dated organisational figures rather than a current headcount.

Frequently Asked Questions

What different police departments are there in Scotland?

“Departments” can mean two different things. There are the 13 geographic local policing divisions that deliver everyday policing, and there are national and specialist functions such as the Specialist Crime Division and the Operational Support Division. This guide uses “division” for the geographic structure and keeps the specialist functions separate, because mixing the two is where most confusion starts.

How many divisions does Police Scotland have?

Police Scotland has 13 local policing divisions. Each has a letter identifier and covers one or more local authority areas. That count refers to local geographic divisions, not every specialist or national function within the service.

What are the 13 divisions of Police Scotland?

They are: A North East; C Forth Valley; D Tayside; E Edinburgh; G Greater Glasgow; J The Lothians and Scottish Borders; K Renfrewshire and Inverclyde; L Argyll and West Dunbartonshire; N Highland and Islands; P Fife; Q Lanarkshire; U Ayrshire; and V Dumfries and Galloway. The letter is the divisional identifier used throughout the structure and in station information.

How are Police Scotland divisions organised, and who heads the service?

Local policing is grouped into three geographic commands or regions, North, East and West. The divisions themselves are headed by Chief Superintendents, and each division is split further into area commands and wards for local response and community problem-solving. Police Scotland is led by Chief Constable Jo Farrell.

What police division covers Aberdeen?

Aberdeen sits in A Division, named North East. The division breaks down into Aberdeen City North, Aberdeen City South, Aberdeenshire North, Aberdeenshire South and Moray.

What is G Division in Police Scotland?

G Division is Greater Glasgow. It has nine area commands, and Police Scotland’s Glasgow North West page confirms that locality is one of them. The published local priorities there are crime, protecting vulnerable people, events and serious organised crime.

What is J Division in Police Scotland?

J Division is The Lothians and Scottish Borders. It has four area commands: East Lothian, Midlothian, Scottish Borders and West Lothian. The Scottish Borders page lists priorities including protecting vulnerable people, reducing violence and anti-social behaviour, improving road safety and tackling serious and organised crime.

When did Strathclyde Police become part of Police Scotland?

Police Scotland began operating on 1 April 2013, when the single service replaced the previous regional forces. The Scottish Government cites the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 as the statutory basis. Strathclyde is not a current local division, and it does not appear in the list of 13.

How can I check a Police Scotland station’s opening times?

Use Police Scotland’s station-opening page and check it before you travel. Times can change at short notice, some stations are closed to the public, and others need an appointment. You can contact Police Scotland online or call 101 to confirm access, or 999 in an emergency.

What do CID police investigate?

Police Scotland’s local team pages describe criminal investigation department officers working alongside response and community officers in individual localities, responding to calls and dealing with local issues. Those pages do not publish a full list of the offences CID handles, so treat any detailed list you find elsewhere with caution. To report something, use Police Scotland’s published contact routes rather than a local team email address.

Next steps

If you need to reach your local division today, identify the division from the table above, check the station opening times before travelling, and use 101 for anything that is not an emergency. Local team email addresses and social media accounts are not monitored 24/7 and should never be used to report a crime.

If you’re preparing to apply, two eligibility conditions catch people out early. You must have lived continuously in the UK for three years immediately before applying, and you need a manual driving licence for the relevant Police Scotland application route. Check both before you spend time on the rest of the process.

Once eligibility is clear, the Police Scotland Entrance Test is the first real hurdle. You can sit a free practice paper here: https://www.jointhecops.co.uk/free-pset/ — it’s an independent preparation resource, not official Police Scotland material, built to get you used to the format and timing before the real thing.

Sources

• Inverness team – scotland.police.uk
• Police – gov.scot
• Police Scotland – sipr.ac.uk