Police Scotland comes into effect

As of today, the Northern constabulary has officially merged with Scotland’s seven other police forces to form Police Scotland — a body which will now be responsible for policing the length and breadth of Scotland.

Contained within Police Scotland there are 14 local policing divisions, each headed by a Local Police Commander, with Chief Inspector Les Donaldson as the Area Commander for Orkney.

To contact the police in an emergency situation the phone number is still 999.

In a non-emergency situation, the phone number is 101 and to pass on information about crime anonymously  Crimestoppers can be reached on 0800 555 111.