Police Survey Reveals Public’s Crime Concerns

Police Scotland has recently published the results of its Your View Counts survey for the period April – June 2016.

The survey gives members of the public the chance to identify their top areas of concern and what crimes they believe the police should be focusing their time and resources on, at both a national and local level.

Areas of Concern

The survey for the first quarter of 2016/17 received over 10,000 responses, and revealed that the main issue of concern for Scottish people on a national level is the threat of terrorism, with a weighted average response of 15%.

This was followed by violent crime (13.1%), serious organised crime (10.1), drug dealing/drug misuse (10.1%) and child abuse (8.9%).

On a local level, however, anti-social behaviour/disorder leads the top five areas of concern, with an weighted average response of 14.1%. In second place is homes being broken into (10.9%), followed by drug dealing/drug misuse (9.4%), violent crime (7.5%) and child abuse (4.8%).

Commenting on the results with regards to national priorities, Assistant Chief Constable Kate Thomson highlighted that an additional 124 armed officers were being provided to ensure Scotland can respond to terrorism threats. In addition, work is being undertaken to identify people thought to be vulnerable to supporting terrorism.

Violent Crime

Speaking about Violent Crime, she said:

"Violent Crime was the second highest priority nationally. There are many aspects to violent crime, which take place in both public and private areas, and include robbery, domestic abuse and sexual crime. 

"We are seeing an increase in reporting of some aspects of these crimes, which we understand from partners to be an indication of confidence in our approach and support of victims. 

"The picture of violence varies across the country, so we ensure flexibility of local and specialist support services, to reflect the demand across communities."

With regards to the identified areas of local concern, Police Scotland said that local Commanders will be giving feedback to their communities about how the police will be addressing these issues on a local level.

Recorded Crime Figures

Police Scotland has also recently published details of the number of crimes recorded during the first quarter of 2016/17.

The figures show that over the quarter, more than 430,100 incidents were reported to the police in Scotland, which is over 23,000 more than the same period of 2015.

Deputy Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said:

"A national violence reduction strategy has been brought into operation to support policing teams throughout Scotland address such offending. Notably almost half of sexual crime reported to us was non-recent or historical in nature.

"That can present investigative challenges but we remain absolutely committed to tackling this issue and encouraging victims to report to us.

“Reductions in acquisitive crime, including housebreaking and car crime, are welcome and again Police Scotland is committed to both prevention and detection."

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