A GLASGOW blueprint for crimebusting has seen a major reduction in violent crime across Scotland.

On April 1, the biggest shake up in years of the police in Scotland took place.

The aim, according to ­Police Scotland's first chief constable, was for the public not to notice when eight forces were blended into one.

Overall the feedback from the public is that few have seen the difference.

"In Glasgow it is very much business as usual," said Superintendent Niven Rennie, Western chairman of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents.

"The only thing that's changed is the management structure. We now have the city of Glasgow division.

"This one division has 4000 staff. If it were a police force it would be the eighth biggest in the UK.

"In the west of Scotland, the only other difference is that some of the support we had before, such as the helicopter, is now covering the whole of Scotland rather than just Strathclyde.

"It used to be a bit of a postcode lottery, but now it is much more equitably distributed across the country.

"It has not had a detrimental impact on Glasgow at all. We still have the same number of call centres. There should not have been any impact on the treatment the public receive when they call in."

On April 1, the new 17,000-strong single national force replaced the former eight-force structure and become the second largest force in the UK, after the Metropolitan Police in London.

Gone are the current eight force areas that have existed since 1975. In their place a unified police force for the whole of the country.

Since then reports of domestic abuse and sexual offences have risen across the country by some 20%, as compared with the same period last year.

Chief Constable Sir Stephen House believes this is partly as a result of the high profile case of Jimmy Savile and greater confidence among the public that they will be taken seriously.

Mr Rennie added: "Under the Chief Constable's direction, we are creating a climate where people feel more confident coming forward to report domestic abuse and historic sexual offences."

New figures show that across Scotland violent crime has fallen as a result and anti-social behaviour is down by 10% since the new single police force was created.

Since then proactive tactics to target dangerous driving has resulted in a 21.6% increase in road traffic offences such as speeding and people caught without a seatbelt.

Glasgow's emphasis on stop searches to try to cut knife crime and violence saw 612,000 stop searches across the former Strathclyde last year, but senior police say this led to a record performance with a 50% reduction in violent crime since 2007.

Overall across Scotland since April 1, there have been more than 310,000 stop searches.

Violent crime has fallen in the first six months - in Glasgow and across the country as a whole.

And anti-social behaviour has fallen by 10%. A new focus on road policing has seen a massive increase in those caught for speeding and not wearing seatbelts.

While Glasgow was still within the former Strathclyde, violent crime fell by 49% in Strathclyde during Sir Stephen's years in charge, and initiatives to tackle gang-fighting were regarded as a real breakthrough, after decades of violence on the streets of Glasgow.

Critics have been expressed about the high level of stop searches across Scotland and the emphasis on road policing but Sir Stephen has said the key is to reduce violence and cut the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads.

Police Scotland has got to make major cost savings - more than £60million this year alone - but has pledged to keep the current numbers of police officers.

The cuts are affecting the numbers of civilian staff.

Estimates suggest some 3000 civilian jobs could be shed but that process is taking longer than anticipated because they cannot make any compulsory redundancies.

In a Scottish Parliament debate earlier this year, MSPs raised concerns that control of policing had been taken out of the hands of locally elected members and transferred to a board appointed by the Scottish ministers.

Former minister Robert Brown, LibDem councillor for Rutherglen, said: "I think at the moment they are working hard to give the impression that nothing has changed but it remains to be seen whether that is really the case.

"There are certainly pressures on civilian staff and that puts pressure on the deployment of police officers. My objection has always been that we have only got one ­police voice across Scotland. For policing and democracy it is not satisfactory."

On April 1, Strathclyde Police was split into five ­divisions: Greater Glasgow; Ayrshire; Lanarkshire; ­Argyll & West Dunbartonshire; and Renfrewshire and Inverclyde.

The three former divisions of A, G and B were forged to create one big division for Greater Glasgow. This is led by Chief Superintendent Andy Bates.

Local police commanders were put in charge of the local policing plans - one of the 373 local authority wards across Scotland.

These local plans also reflect national priorities on public protection, including initiatives on domestic ­violence and sexual crimes.

One new dimension is that the public can contact Police Scotland by dialling 101, if they don't need an emergency response.

Callers are automatically routed to their nearest ­police office - even if they are on the move - to enable them to report crimes such as property damage or pass on information like suspected drug use.

The new Scottish Police Authority was created to hold the chief constable to account for the policing of Scotland.

It replaced the regional boards that exist in each of the current eight force areas and which took their representation from local councillors.

However, the chairman of the police authority board, businessman Vic Emery, has said he hopes the SPA will dig much deeper into decisions being made by the new force.