Let’s connect communities
Last week I had the pleasure of hosting the Renfrewshire Multiagency Leadership Cohort at Paisley police office for their fourth development day, in partnership with local senior officer Graeme Binning from Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
Our keynote speaker was
Colin Campbell, chief executive and founder of Assist Social Capital.
Colin, a good friend of Graeme and I, spoke about the strength of relationships and connections particularly across communities and how we need to work harder to understand crosscutting relationships to build community cohesion through social capital.
The students now have their project subject matter to research and review before presenting their findings to the Chief Officer for Public Safety in early June.
I won’t reveal their project as this will be kept under wraps until after the COPSG meeting, however we are excited about the potential positive benefits it will have for delivery of public services.
Last week I was in Dublin with the Scottish Police Rugby team for their international match versus the combined Ireland Police team.
We lost out to an excellent team but all the chat was about the relationships built on this fixture over the years, ones based on trust and a common love of rugby.
These are important opportunities for me as I enjoy having time away from work to socialise with the troops and listen to their work and rugby experiences.
For me, this is an important part of our wellbeing – work hard, play hard – and sadly I think this is being diluted as pressures for time off becomes harder.
On to policing matters, and I urge householders in Johnstone and Paisley to take care securing their houses as we have seen a small increase in housebreakings over the past fortnight.
We treat housebreaking as a priority and would welcome any information as to who is responsible so we can take the appropriate action.
Similarly, please call 101 or 999 if you see anyone acting suspiciously.
We continue to coordinate searches looking for missing person Allan Burns, who is yet to be found. Again, please get in touch if you have any information that may assist our team.
Over the past few weeks officers have been carrying out increased proactive work tackling the supply of controlled drugs and carrying of weapons. Often, these are linked and lead to violence so my message is clear; don’t carry weapons or expect to be stopped by officers and searched.