Police Chief Constable’s annual reports, statistical returns and other reports

In the mid-19th century, chief constables (or the equivalent title, depending on the force) made annual reports to the committee which supervised them (police commissioners in most burghs, and police committees or standing joint committees in counties). To begin with these may be recorded in the minute books of the committee, and may give statistics for certain types of crime, as well as an account of the work of the police over the previous year. By the late 19th century, the chief constables of cities, counties and larger towns had the annual reports printed and made more publicly available. By the early 20th century most forces issued printed reports, and these contained tables of statistics.

Some local studies libraries and local authority archives keep runs of chief constables’ annual reports for forces in their areas. The National Records of Scotland hold a small sample of annual reports for a variety of burgh and county forces for the period 1890-1930, and 1969-1988 (HH4/239-297, 301-313). Annual reports by Chief Constables are one of the key sources of information on the history of the police and on crime in Scotland, especially for academic historians, historians of the police, and local historians.

In addition to annual reports, chief constables sometimes made other reports and submissions, such as separate annual or quarterly statistical returns, or particular instance reports. The survival of these is patchy, although they can usually be found in the minute books of the relevant police committee etc. Occasionally separate bound tabulated annual returns of crimes and offences survive, such as those printed by the Superintendent of the Ayr Burgh police, 1859-1885, which survive among the records of Strathclyde Police at Glasgow City Archives (SR22/71/8), and similar monthly returns by the Inverness-shire Constabulary for 1942-68 at Highland Council Archives (R91/D/3/2).