Police chief quizzed on crackdown action
Questions asked after gathering of youths on North Inch
A councillor has asked if a police operation to help prevent anti-social behaviour and violence in Perth will be scaled up.
At a council meeting on Monday it was revealed there had been a recent increase in incidents, the latest being a group of 40 youths who were dispersed on Perth’s North Inch at the weekend.
Operation Stung was set up to reduce violence and anti-social behaviour linked to young people congregating in public spaces.
Police Scotland’s latest quarterly report was presented to PKC’s housing and communities committee on May 31.
It reported “a slight increase in large groups congregating towards the end of quarter four,”from January 1 to March 31, 2021.
At Monday’s meeting Liberal Democrat councillor Peter Barrett asked officers if Operation Stung would be intensified “in light of recent incidents”.
Cllr Barrett referred to the latest incident over the weekend reportedly involving 40 youths on Perth’s North Inch.
The Perth City Centre councillor said: “We have heard of similar incidents in the past. There is clearly a problem.
“I am aware the community safety team and other voluntary sector partners and the police are all working together to try and deal with this but I am wondering if there are sufficient resources being devoted to this if we are getting reports of that scale of incident.”
CI Graham Binnie said he was aware of the incident which he believed happened on Saturday night.
He told councillors: “There were officers there within three minutes of the call and dispersing that crowd.
“Operation Stung - as you know - started due to a couple of weekends of significant violence.
“So curbing that level of violence has been - I would regard - a success.”
The local police chief said every weekend they had resources dedicated to congregations of people potentially in public spaces - particularly young people - as well as visitor management in other areas of Perth and Kinross.
CI Binnie said they had not finished with Operation Stung and were working with young people “so as not to create a wedge between policing and our younger communities that causes us damage going forward”.
The chief inspector said he was pleased to get back into schools and said it was a “difficult balance” of trying to deal with violent behaviour and anti-social behaviour but also for officers to “show a bit of compassion with young people who have had difficulties over the past year”.
Conservative councillor Caroline Shiers said: “It could have potentially really kicked off right across Perth and Kinross with young people who really have taken the brunt of some of the lockdown restrictions over the last year.
“And I think officers have handled it - for the most part really well and we are grateful for that.”
The Blairgowrie and Glens councillor then asked how this coalition work would be built going forward over the summer months with the combination of people gathering, alcohol and hot summer days and how resources would be allocated to rural areas.
CI Binnie said they had made adjustments to their community policing model designed to deal with the risks they see in more rural areas.
He said: “If we have an issue in a particular area then we can flex that community response across the county.”
He said this would mean moving resources around the county to maximise the amount of resource they have available.
CI Binnie paid credit to support from youth engagement teams, street pastors and the YMCA as just some of the groups working with the police.
PKC’s depute director of education and children’s services Jacquie Pepper told councillors it was important not to “demonise” young people for wanting to get together in the way they would normally do but to encourage them to do so peacefully.
It could have potentially really kicked off right across Perth and Kinross