Agenda item

4.1    Police Scotland

         Superintendent Clark referred to the Strategic Police Plan;  a meeting had taken place yesterday hosted by Police Scotland at which four local authorities had been represented.  The purpose of the meeting was to identify priorities and to get the ball rolling about the consultation.    A number of similar meetings would take place and a timeline would be issued.   The results of the “Your View Counts Survey” had been published and a breakdown of the results for the Scottish Borders would be circulated to Members.   He referred to information on the BBC website which had been published as a review of closure and advised this was not the case and the review was in connection with best plans for money with collaborative opportunities to make Police Scotland more operationally viable by providing a better quality of service.     Members expressed concern at the adverse publicity relating to the estates review.

4.2    Chief Inspector A. McLean presented the Police Progress report covering the period April 2016 to September 2016 which had been circulated. The report detailed the figures for the six Priority areas to date and compared them to the figures for the same period in 2015/16.

4.3    Priority 1 – Protecting People, referrals for the second quarter of 2016/17 were showing a 7.25% decrease on the 2015/16 figures.  This equated to 48 fewer referrals.

4.4    Priority 2 – Reducing Violence, Disorder and Antisocial Behaviour, showed a 3.9% increase in Common Assaults reported in the year to date when compared to 2015/16.  This equated to 15 more victims.  There had been a 1.1% increase (28 more incidents) in the year to date when compared to the same time period in 2015/16.   Antisocial behaviour tended to be seasonal with increases seen in the summer months.  Therefore the small increase in the number of incidents in quarter 2 was not unexpected.    There was a small decrease in the number of recorded victims of Hate Crime in the year to date when compared to the same time period in 2015/16.   In regard to the reporting of hate crime, Mr Higgs asked if the information on prejudice type – disability could be widened to include mental or physical disability and Chief Inspector A. McLean said he would enquire about this but he was sure that the figures were now broken down as far as they could be.

4.5    Priority 3 - Tackling substance misuse.  Officers in the Scottish Borders had conducted a total of 166 stop and searches of which 63 proved positive (38%).  Unfortunately owing to current reporting methods, further breakdown of stop and search activity into individual categories was impossible, therefore the number of searches conducted under the Misuse of Drugs Act could not be reported.  However this was a high success level for positive searches.  There was a 67% decrease in the number of visits to licensed premises, which equated to 544 fewer visits, owing to the excellent working relationship between Police, the trade and partner agencies who engaged at an early stage before premises became problematic, thereby reducing the need for visits.   

4.6    Priority 4 - Making our Roads Safer, there had been a 20.5% increase (9 more casualties) in the year to date when compared to 2015/16.  The number of people killed this year to date was 9, which equated to 4 more fatalities than at the same time last year.   The number of serious injuries had also increased compared to last year in the same time period

4.7    Priority 5 - Tackling serious and organised crime.  Cash seizures were lower than the value seized in 2015/16. There had been a 13.5% decrease in the number of detections for drug supply in the year to date compared to the same time period in 2015/16.    Members were advised that cannabis plants to the value of £100,000 had been found in a house in the northern part of the Borders

4.8    Priority 6 -Tackling Acquisitive Crime.   There had been an increase in the number of housebreaking to dwellings in the year to date, with 5 more victims reported.   It was noted that the rise was likely to be connected to the increase in thefts of motor vehicles as culprits broke into houses to steal car keys. 

DECISION

         NOTED the report and that Chief Inspector McLean would ascertain whether information on prejudice type – disability could be widened to include mental and/or physical disability.