Brave frontline police officers have my eternal gratitude and respect. They do a valiant job of protecting us from harm day in, day out.
Emergency workers are often the first on the scene of a tragedy and the last to leave. They take risks that most of us cannot even contemplate.
The least that our police service deserves is the basic level of support they need from government to do their jobs.
But Police Scotland officers are not getting that anymore from the SNP Government.
Funding cuts have left the force with just about the lowest number of frontline officers in 14 years.
Last week, Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross took the SNP Leader Humza Yousaf to task at First Minister's Questions about these shocking cuts.
He put the words of frontline officers directly to the First Minister. He quoted Police Scotland Deputy Chief Officer David Page, who said: "It used to be every pound is a prisoner, now it’s every penny."
He raised the words of David Kennedy of the Scottish Police Federation, who said “We might see more M9 cases appearing where people actually die...that’s the harsh reality if there are not enough police officers."
And he quoted officers at the most recent Scottish Police Authority meeting who described the SNP's budget cuts as a "slash and burn" approach to policing.
Douglas Ross then challenged Humza Yousaf to reveal the consequence of SNP cuts. He demanded to know how many police stations would close, which crimes the police won't investigate any longer, and how many officer positions would be cut.
Of course, as usual, Humza Yousaf dodged responsibility. He used a lot of words and waffled on for plenty of time, but refused to answer the question itself.
The truth is that his cuts will do devastating damage to Scottish policing. It will greatly reduce the ability of the force to prevent crimes and protect the public.
In my own constituency region in the West of Scotland, the cuts will be felt keenly. As I understand it, two police stations in my local area are under threat of closure. The stations in Milngavie and Bishopbriggs may both be lost, unless more funding is made available from the SNP Government.
The SNP would have you believe that the problem is that they don't get enough money. But in truth, if they didn't waste so much of taxpayers' money every year, there would be plenty funding available to give our frontline officers what they need.
Wasting so much cash on fruitless attempts to hold another divisive referendum has left Humza Yousaf without the necessary resources for things that matter. When you add the hundreds of millions that has been frittered away on ferries that don't float, it becomes clear that the problem is not the UK, but the SNP.
True to form, the nationalists won't even come clean about how damaging their lack of funding will be to our police officers.
But in the months and years to follow, when our police force can't investigate every crime, the public will recognise just how costly these cuts have been to Scottish policing.
