Challenging incidents in first few weeks
‘ Highly committed and professional teams working hard every day alongside partners and communities to ensure West Lothian is as safe as possible to live, work and visit.’
I think that would be a fair assessment of my initial impressions having taken over as Local Area Commander a few weeks ago.
It has certainly been a busy few weeks which has seen a number of challenging incidents across the area, all of which I was delighted to see were responded to in a really professional manner with some excellent results achieved.
Having spent the majority of my career across in Forth Valley, I have been keen to get out and about and will continue to do so over the coming weeks and months.
On my third day, I joined the Divisional Commander, Chief Constable, Cabinet Secretary for Justice and the chair of the Scottish Police Authority out in Armadale where we visited the Mayfield Community Hub and heard first hand from staff about the excellent partnership working that has been undertaken in that area.
All of those in attendance were hugely complimentary regarding the problem solving approach to community policing and the enthusiasm of all the staff involved.
Those present weren’t slow in pointing out to our guests that it is just one of many really good examples across West Lothian.
I also attended the Policing Scrutiny Panel where again there was really positive feedback from members for the work being undertaken across West Lothian which was really pleasing to hear.
Clearly, one of my key objectives is to ensure we continue delivering at that level whilst obviously seeking opportunities to improve further.
Whilst the hard work and good results have been readily apparent, I have also seen that there are significant demands placed on our resources and I am extremely grateful to West Lothian Council for the additional investment and commitment they have made in our Local Policing teams.
This allows me to commit additional resources into local communities to tackle those issues which matter most to local residents and have been identified to the police and our partners as priorities.
I am sure you have already seen some of the excellent results which have been achieved as a result of this approach and I am genuinely delighted to have this resource at my disposal as I now work to ensure we continue to provide the highest level of service to the public of West Lothian and that our communities are as safe as possible.