Police on the beat

I noted with interest Oban Community Council’s criticism of the police presence in Oban and the focus on visibility.

I must be living in a different community. This week on my return from Glasgow where I was attending a football match, I observed traffic police on the A85 at Taynuilt and I have seen police on the back road to Connel, where I live, three times this week.

In the town itself I saw two police officers this morning on Soroba Road and a police vehicle was behind me when I came to work.

The random selections I have highlighted are fairly typical from my perspective.

George Berry describes the roads as being a ‘free for all’. I saw police moving a driver on in Tweedale Street this week as their vehicle was causing a disruption, again just a random observation.

With respect to police cars being parked up in Albany Street, that is not a surprise because that is where the police operate from. This fixation about police on the beat defies credible logic in what we should be expecting them to do.

I would rather police spent their time, covertly or otherwise, doing the legwork to catch the ‘bad boys and girls’ who are dealing drugs in our community rather than standing on a street corner eating ice cream talking to Mrs McGlumpher.

In my day job working for Argyll Community Housing Association, we have positive engagement with the police on a variety of fronts, from dealing with anti-social behaviour to more serious matters involving drugs in our communities.

It is the easiest thing in the world to sit and criticise based on the stereotype that community policing is at its most effective when two ‘bobbies’ wander up and down the street all day waiting for a criminal to pop out in front of them. The real world is a bit different.