Rise in assaults on emergency workers
Police figures for lockdown also reveal increase in fraud
Attacks on R e n f r e ws h i r e ’ s emergency workers increased during lockdown, new figures show.
Police Scotland stats covering March 2020 to April 2021 show there were 429 common assaults recorded in the region and Inverclyde, up from 400 the previous year.
The number of frauds reported also rose by 162 the same period as cruel con artists took advantage of lockdown restrictions to target people online.
The 2020-21 Performance Report, which will be presented to the Scottish Police Authority’s Policing Performance Committee on Tuesday, shows a drop in fireraising, house-breakings and serious assaults.
Senior officers say the force was faced with a series of unprecedented challenges throughout the pandemic.
Chief Superintendent David Duncan, divisional commander for Renfrewshire and Inverclyde said: “The 2020-21 reporting period is unique, detailing a picture of reported crime from when we first entered lockdown through to early April this year.
“It will be some time before we can truly understand the impact the pandemic has had on crime levels - lockdown meant fewer people were on our streets and the policing landscape was unprecedented.
“What I can confirm, though, is that, throughout the pandemic, officers remained active in our communities, responding to concerns, gathering intelligence and keeping people safe.”
He added: “Compared to the same reporting period last year, they have detected 63 more crimes involving offensive weapons and removed them from our streets.
“They have helped reduce the number of housebreakings by 25, serious assaults by 41 and ten fewer crimes of fire-raising.
“Their dedication to their communities’ safety is reflected in the recent public confidence in policing survey which showed an increase from 40 per cent to 53 per cent this year.”
“Fraud has increased exponentially and online child sexual abuse is now a national threat.
“The implementation of our Cyber Strategy will ensure we continue to build capacity and capability to keep people safe in the virtual space.”
There were hundreds of reports of online child sexual abuse as numbers increased during the last year.
Police Scotland’s report to the Scottish Police Authority showed there were a total of 1,966 child sexual abuse crimes recorded during the year, an increase of 5.9 per cent compared to last year ( 1,857) and 24.9 per cent greater than the five year average of 1,574.
The report outlines the safeguarding of 434 children through the enforcement of 649 National Online Child Abuse Prevention (NOCAP) packages between September 2020 and March this year.
The packages provide intelligence and evidence which underpins investigations carried out to identify and arrest online child abusers.