Number of complaints rise due to pandemic

The coronanvirus pandemic has led to an increase in the number of complaints about police, according to statistics on the first quarter of the year.

Police Scotland’s performance report found confidence in policing was high, with 63% of 22,000 people questioned agreeing they had confidence in local police.

It also recorded 1,676 complaints, up 14.4% on the same period the previous year.

More than a quarter (26.3%) were related to Covid-19.

Complaints concerned officers failing to physically distance, failing to enforce physical distancing by the public and not wearing PPE.

They also involved “allegations of incivility” over officers attempting to “engage with individuals regarding their presence in a public place”.

The report found officers made 59,778 interventions under coronavirus legislation.

This included 42 premises being closed, 3,164 fixed penalty notices issued, 263 arrests and 339 people “returned home using reasonable force”.

The report found 171 police officers or staff have contracted Covid-19, with all but two having now recovered.

Deputy Chief Constable Fiona Taylor said officers “discharged their duties with courtesy, compassion and common sense to help the people of Scotland”.

Online fraud and anti-social behaviour calls linked to suspected Covid-19 regulation breaches have put police under lockdown pressure in Tayside.

The region-wide tally of antisocial behaviour incidents for the quarter from April to June rocketed to 11,147 from 7,161 for the same period last year – the majority connected to alleged pandemic restriction offences.

Online scammers were responsible for a near-doubling of fraud incidents – with Angus a hotspot after a 95% spike in case numbers as computer con men found new ways of exploiting people’s fears around coronavirus.

Tayside-wide performance figures showed a slight reduction in total crime across the region – 4,296 offences compared to 4,463 during the same period in 2019.

Tayside divisional commander Chief Superintendent Andrew Todd warned against making any “swift conclusions about crime trends” due to the extraordinary circumstances.