Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
‘Meeting people’ is turning back time to walking beats again
Dear Editor
I read with interest of the formation of local problem-solving policing teams [Advertiser, May 10].
My first reaction was “what is a problem-solving policing team?” Inspector Louise Brownlie enthusiastically tells us that her officers are eager to get out and meet as many people as possible in their designated area.
I don’t want to rain on her parade but in the 1970s and early 80s I did just that. It was called “walking the beat” day shift, back shift and night shift.
During my 30 years of police service I was of the understanding that officers were always problem solvers in the first instance, for the various situations they faced every day.
In my view, these newlyformed “local problemsolving policing teams” are just another “soundbite” on the part of Police Scotland to distract us from the reality of the precarious police cover there is for the two towns, with Airdrie being of particular interest to me.
The Airdrie squad consists of nine officers for Airdrie itself and the surrounding seven villages from Calderbank to Greengairs and Salsburgh.
I have said it before, but when Airdrie was a real police office there were 12 constables, 2 sergeants and one inspector on each of the four shifts. These new teams are, in my view, Police Scotland’s miserable attempt to distract the people of Airdrie from the dire state of policing in this town.
I ask the question, perhaps somewhat cynically, if any one of the team cannot solve a problem, what do they do? Their primary duty is to prevent crime and detect offenders; do they then resort to arrest, which would not make them problem-solvers but police officers doing their duty? I sympathise with the constables, they will ultimately be placed in an invidious position.
The Chief Constable of Police Scotland sits in his ivory tower within the Scottish Police College; a more remote headquarters could not be imagined, totally divorced from the public and the real world of operational policing.
These initiatives probably came down from high and this, with the bare minimum of officers for the vast area of Airdrie and its villages, is what it is – a soundbite, a headline, nothing more.
Of course, a return to Airdrie being policed as in times gone by will probably never return, more’s the pity.
I say again, these bit piece initiatives on the part of Police Scotland should be seen for what they are – a distraction from the dreadful and inadequate policing of our town.
David Stephen, Airdrie
Attempt to distract from the dire state of policing in this town