Community cops returning to town
New policing structure after feedback from public
Police Scotland’s Tayside Division announced last week that it has put in place the final pieces of a new structure which it says has been months in the planning - and will see a return to community policing.
The move comes just weeks after concerns were raised over the level of service experienced by residents of Blairgowrie and Rattray at a meeting of the town’s community council.
At that meeting a representative from Police Scotland said that changes to local policing - which have now come into effect - would include a dedicated sergeant, Sgt John McKeag, based in Blairgowrie, along with two officers, Alistair Crowe and Carol Addison.
Police Scotland say that the changes have come about as a result of the force having listened to community feedback and police officers themselves, and a consideration of the future implications of legislation and re-structuring by partner organisations, all of which contributed to the decision to change how they deploy officers in communities across Tayside.
A new locality model has been introduced in each of the three policing areas in Perth and Kinross, broadly reflecting similar re-structuring work being carried out by the local authorities.
Each locality will be led by an inspector reporting to their respective area commander.
Inspector Gordon Thomson will be based at Blairgowrie police station and will be responsible for the multimember wards of Carse of Gowrie, Strathmore, Blairgowrie and Glens, and Highlands and Strathtay.
The inspectors will develop and enhance local partnership working and public engagement ensuring a problem solving approach is adopted towards local community issues, and that local community concerns and priorities are addressed in a co-ordinated manner.
Response to incidents and calls for service will largely be delivered by locality policing teams while designated community policing teams will be allocated time to work closely with communities and partners to effectively address local issues and develop a really good knowledge of their area.
However, the Blairie understands that there are no plans to re-instate the front counter service at Blairgowrie police station despite these developments.
Commenting on the changes, divisional commander, Chief Superintendent Paul Anderson said: “Each locality will have its own inspector and that brings management and understanding of policing issues to a much more local level.
“We have changed the way community sergeants and constables are tasked and deployed and they will have much more time dedicated to dealing with local community issues and getting to know their communities.
“They will be much better aligned with geographic areas so they will develop far closer links with communities.
“Our communities have told us that they believe we have lost elements of this kind of community policing so we want to return to it. People tell us they want to know their local community officers and know how to contact them.
“We understand people need this trust and confidence and we will all benefit from that.”
Chief Superintendent Anderson continued: “There are elements of the new model which are not themselves new and certainly we hope to return to a style of community policing which we know has worked well in the past and is appreciated by communities.
“We have taken a number of elements which we know have worked before and designed a model focused on specific localities and community policing teams, which makes best use of our available resources and is right for Tayside communities, both now and for the foreseeable future.
“Information on your locality and community teams can be found on the Police Scotland website. Anyone can enter their postcode and immediately obtain information about who their locality inspector and community sergeants are for their area, including details of how to make contact.
“Over the next few weeks, Tayside Division will use social media to provide more information about the new locality structure and what the changes mean for communities in those particular areas.
“We would also like to emphasise that at any time, people can access the ‘Your View Counts’ online survey through the Police Scotland website and provide feedback on local policing.
“We do consider all comments submitted and indeed much of the feedback we have already received from the survey has informed the changes we have made.”
The Blairgowrie and the Glens team can be emailed on TaysideBlairgowrieGlensCPT@scotland.pnn.police.uk