Inside Justice

Only pro-active policing can counter this anti-social blight, writes Chris Marshall

On Saturday evening, a ten-yearold boy was seriously injured after being hit by a stolen motorbike at a pedestrian crossing in Drylaw, north Edinburgh.

According to Police Scotland, a number of motorbikes were being driven dangerously in the area immediately before the hit and run took place.

Their riders were doing so in open defiance of the force’s officers, whose Drylaw station lies just a few hundred yards from where the boy was hit.

And they were doing so with impunity, safe in the knowledge that overwhelmed police cannot and will not give chase.

Saturday’s hit and run may be a one-off, but it has been a long time coming.

Much of the north of Scotland’s capital city is plagued by gangs of teenagers racing stolen motorbikes and quad bikes through the streets.

It is the sort of low-level anti-social behaviour we tend not to hear much about until lives are lost or changed forever.

Nor is it the sort of issue Police Scotland wants to talk about as it repositions itself for a future apparently dominated by cyber crime and the threat of international terrorism.

But incidents like the one which took place early on Saturday evening illustrate not only the real and present challenges faced by the force, but also its continuing failure to meet them.

Earlier this summer, police in Drylaw launched Operation Myriad, working alongside specialists from across the force to tackle antisocial behaviour and crimes of violence.

It led to dozens of arrests, 28 vehicles being seized and 15 stolen motorbikes being recovered.

Perhaps most important of all, it led to what the chief constable calls “expressions of confidence in local policing”.

But so resource-intensive was Operation Myriad that it couldn’t run for ever.

Eventually the high-visibility patrols stop and the specialists go on to other duties.

Now that Myriad is over, it appears the motorbike gangs are back and that hard-won public confidence will again begin to ebb.

No one doubts the professionalism or commitment of individual officers, but increasingly it appears they are being undermined by a lack of resources.

A report published earlier this month by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research – which drew on responses from serving officers – described a “stretched” service, where those on the frontline believe community policing is being “hampered” by other organisational pressures.

Put simply, Police Scotland is struggling to achieve all that is being asked of it – officers know it, the public know it and, crucially, those who continue to break the law know it.

The added difficulty of dealing with antisocial behaviour in a place like Drylaw is how to punish the culprits.

The sort of community sentencing available to the courts has been shown not to be a disincentive to petty crime for those who often have nothing to lose.

Yet custodial sentences of a few months threaten to push young men into a life of more serious offending.

It’s the sort of intractable problem which can only be tackled by pro-active community policing carried out over a long period.

The results may not be immediate, but it could very well save lives.