Your View Counts to the local police

Stirling Area Commander, Chief Inspector Lynn Ratcliff (pictured) invites residents to have their say on what they think police priorities should be.

As regular readers will be aware, I have previously mentioned the Police Scotland ‘Your View Counts’ survey and encouraged those of you who live and work in Stirling to take the time to complete it.

The survey is available to people across Scotland but results are collated locally so it’s your opportunity to tell us what you think our priorities here in Forth Valley Division should be for the coming year.

Last year, almost 1400 people across Forth Valley took the time to complete the survey, which incidentally, only takes 15 minutes. More than 400 of the respondents were from Stirlingshire and the local priorities identified were: antisocial behaviour and disorder; house break-in; drug dealing and misuse; violent crime; child abuse and child sexual exploitation.

On Friday, the survey was relaunched and analysis of the results together with crime statistics and other community and partnership meetings will be used to determine our priorities.

The survey is entirely confidential and is open all year round, so if you do take part and your priorities change, you can always submit another survey.

This year, I would like more of you to participate and have as many people as possible share their thoughts with us.

As Area Commander, results from the survey tell me what is most important to you and provide information which helps me task local officers with undertaking activities and operations which will tackle the issues you are most concerned about.

That might be running an operation to target a drug dealer, carrying out high visibility patrols in an area where there have been reports of disorder or undertaking roadside checks to detect drunk drivers. Tell me what’s most important. We will collect results quarterly and publish them on the Police Scotland website.

In Stirlingshire, I will provide regular updates on progress towards your priorities in this column and through our social media channels, so I would urge you all go to the Police Scotland website and have your say.