Thanks for helping us to help you
This will be the first article of the year and I would like to start with a quick reflection on policing in our community over 2018.
In the simplest terms, we aim to protect those in our communities from those who aim to cause harm.
In order to achieve this we have continued to build up relationships with our partners, particularly South Lanarkshire Council and social work, to collectively address the issues that are concerning the residents of our local towns.
This has led to action being taken against those identified as engaging in criminal and anti-social behaviour and has had the consequence of improving the lives of those who has suffered from the actions of these people.
This can only be achieved with our communities working with us and with our community policing model now being in place for over a year – with two officers in each ward area – we are seeing public engagement continuing to increase.
This leads to increased intelligence and we will continue to listen to you as we aim to further improve the issues that matter most in our communities.
You will be aware that the festive period is our busiest time of the year.
We face a high level of demand all year round, but at this time the increased demand does stretch our resources and depending on the nature of the call, may result in us taking longer to attend. However, our call prioritising system is designed to ensure that those who need a quick response will get one.
Due to the increase number of people shopping and socialising at this time of year, we have had additional patrols in our town centres and I am pleased to report that the vast majority of those who our officers have engaged with have been in good spirits (pardon the pun) and have enjoyed themselves in the right manner.
There have been a few who have decided to engage in violence and antisocial behaviour and they have found themselves spending the rest of their night in a cell rather than going home. We are investigating a number of break ins which occurred over the last week. These include a housebreaking in Windsor Gardens, Hamilton.
This occurred between 8pm on December 26 and 1am the following day. The suspects forced a door and stole property including electrical equipment.
A further housebreaking occurred at Cameronian Way, Larkhall, between 4pm on December 27, and 10.30am the following day, where again entry was forced to a door and items including jewellery have been stolen.
Finally we are investigating a break-in to Fonemaster, Union Street, Larkhall.
This has occurred overnight between December 27-28.