Davidson touts texts to police as ‘more discreet’ than 999 call
A CRIME could be reported by text “as it is happening,” the Scottish Conservative leader has suggested.
Ruth Davidson said Police Scotland could follow the lead of the British Transport Police in bringing in a text service to report crime as part of a proposed £298 million IT upgrade.
She said “fresh ideas” are needed to help detect and solve more crimes.
She said: “The British Transport Police introduced a text message number five years ago. The idea was simple – passengers on trains could text 61016 to report a crime while it was happening.
“The format is more discreet than a phone call and quicker too.”
The service enabled more than 13,000 incidents to be reported to the transport police in 2016/17 across the UK, and 1,300 of these were in Scotland – up by one third on the previous year, she added.
The force said the service has given the public more confidence to report crime, and Ms Davidson pointed out an estimated 4,300 crimes had been recorded since 2013 as a result of the messages.
Chief Superintendent Roddy Newbigging said: “Police Scotland is currently examining how we can improve our contact as part of our contact strategy, and, going forward, we will be using the technology and social media channels of the