Police Scotland Chief Constable Jo Farrell has announced that between 40 and 50 serving officers have been suspended while complaints of violence against women and girls are investigated.

Farrell said others were also expected to face sanctions over their conduct, following a string of former officers being convicted of sexual offences in 2026.

She said a review is under way into the case of Police Constable Alan Greer, who was exposed as a serial rapist after he died by suicide. She added that about 8,000 officers have still to be re-vetted to confirm their suitability for the job, under rules changed earlier this year.

Up to 50 Scottish police officers suspended over alleged crimes against women https://t.co/iGM3t0EAbx

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) October 8, 2026

In an interview with the BBC, Farrell described violence against women and girls in Scotland as an “epidemic“, one that has also affected the police.

“We currently have around 40 to 50 people who have been suspended, meaning they are not working, and who are being investigated for offences relating to violence against women and girls,” she said. “Those investigations are at various stages.”

Between 300 and 400 officers have so far been re-vetted under the new rules, which were introduced after Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens murdered Sarah Everard in 2021. Farrell said the rules would make it easier to remove people judged unfit to serve in the force.

How Greer attacked women for 14 years without suspicion

It emerged in July that Greer had repeatedly attacked women, and had tried to murder some of them, over a period of 14 years. He is believed to have attacked at least nine women, and investigators say there may be more victims.

The case came to light in late 2025, when a woman in her 40s went to a Glasgow police station and reported that she had been raped by an officer in 2012. She said she had called the police that year to report an incident at her home. Officers took her statement and left, but one of them returned alone a few hours later, forced her into a sexual act and raped her.

Her complaint prompted an investigation by Police Scotland’s anti-corruption unit. It identified the suspect and found that, in the weeks after the attack, he had repeatedly looked up the woman’s file on the force’s computer system without any official reason, even while on leave. Those digital traces allowed detectives to piece together his offending bit by bit.

The inquiry went on to find eight further victims, five of them sex workers. Investigators say Greer used the services of hundreds of sex workers throughout his policing career, and several of the women suffered extremely violent attacks. Police say that, had he been alive, he would in some cases have faced attempted murder charges because of the extreme violence he used.

Further inquiries showed that Greer passed vetting to join the then Strathclyde Police, one of the regional forces later merged into Police Scotland in 2013, in 2009, even though his record contained two reports of criminal behaviour towards women. He was arrested in April on suspicion of the 2012 rape and suspended, then died by suicide in May, aged 47.

Farrell said the case, parts of which will be made public, would establish whether gaps in the vetting process had allowed his offending to continue.

“This is an ongoing investigation, but it is also subject to independent review to establish whether there were opportunities to identify his offending sooner, and whether we can learn lessons from it,” she said. “What matters is that this independent review takes place, so that colleagues from other parts of the UK can look at the case and see whether any opportunities were missed.”

Two more officers convicted of violence against women in 2026

Greer is one of three Scottish police officers exposed as rapists this year. In July, former officer Cameron Ross, 39, was jailed for 10 years after being found guilty of raping two women and threatening to kill a third, in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis and in Inverness, over a period of 10 years. Ross has appealed against both his conviction and his sentence.

Last month, former officer Campbell Petrie, 50, was found guilty of a series of sexual assaults on women between 2006 and 2023. First arrested after a complaint from one of his victims 17 years ago, Petrie was convicted of two counts of rape and a string of other charges, including the physical and sexual abuse of two women in Glasgow. He was suspended by Police Scotland after being charged in December 2023, but left the force two years later.

A third officer, Jay Skivington, 24, was sentenced in October to 160 hours of community service and given a five-year non-harassment order over violent acts against a woman.