Officers battling a rising tide of cases as rates double in five years

The number of domestic abuse incidents in Angus has more than doubled in five years, new figures show.

Police Scotland is working in partnership with Angus Violence Against Women Partnership and other agencies to deliver “a variety of supportive and preventative programmes”.

Chief Superintendent Paul Anderson said people feeling safe in their homes in Angus “continues to be vitally important to Police Scotland”.

Mr Anderson’s quarterly report showed that only 52% of domestic incidents result in a crime being recorded.

Figures from April to September showed a slight increase of 0.7% from 420 to 423 incidents compared to the same period last year.

Mr Anderson said domestic violence still accounts for a large proportion of the number of violent incidents reported.

He said: “Overall levels of domestic abuse are still high and have more than doubled in Angus in the last five years.

“However, there is some information to support that upward trend has levelled off and this will be closely monitored.”

A multi-agency steering group has now been set up to deliver and embed the lessons learned from training across Angus.

There was also a slight increase in violent crime in Angus, with the majority of incidents happening indoors.

The number of sexual crimes has increased by 50.9% from 116 to 175 and the detection rate dropped from 64% to 59%.

Kirriemuir and Dean SNP councillor Julie Bell said: “I’m quite concerned at the number of domestic violence incidents.

“I’m also quite concerned around the number of sexual crimes – we’ve seen a rise of 50% which is hugely concerning.

“The detection rate has also dropped which also concerns me.”