The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Committee hears number of offences has doubled
The challenge of combating rural crime was highlighted by Angus’s top police officer after he revealed to councillors a sharp spike in reported incidents in the second quarter of this year.
Chief Inspector David McIntosh delivered a wide-ranging report to Angus scrutiny and audit committee councillors on policing performance figures for the period to the end of June, with rural crime featuring prominently in the headline statistics.
And the senior officer revealed the number of offences within the threemonth period was more than double that of the previous quarter – and around three quarters of the tally for the whole of last year.
“Overall the number of crimes of dishonesty in Angus during this period has reduced, from 379 to 351, which is positive,” he told the Forfar committee.
“But the obvious upturn is in the number of rural crimes reported during the quarter, where the figure was 31. CI DAVID MCINTOSH
“Of those, 27 related to crimes of dishonesty and four for separate wildlife offences,” said CI McIntosh.
“In the previous quarter there were only 13 reported rural crimes, and in the previous year the total was 45.”
He continued: “That probably puts into context that it is quite an increase and at the moment my officers are pro-actively out in the rural area.”
Plain clothes CID officers are also being used in the fight against Angus rural criminals.
Recent weeks have also seen a number of reported thefts of tools and equipment such as trailers and quad bikes and Mr McIntosh said people in the rural communities had an important role to play in deterring the thieves,”
He added: “It can be challenging to people in our rural and farming communities to lock and secure their equipment. But this represents peoples’ livelihoods and their property and it is important they feel safe in their homes so we’ll continue to look closely at that.”
At the moment my officers are pro-actively out in the rural areas.