Thinner blue line blamed as capital endures heaviest toll of thefts from homes

Residents in Edinburgh’s EH5 postcode – which covers Trinity and Granton – are the Scots neighbourhoods most likely to be broken into, according to home insurance data.

The detection rate for housebreaking in Edinburgh is lower than the Scottish average at 21.6% in the first quarter of the year.

The capital has also seen community police numbers drop by 7% between 2013 and 2017.

Last year Police Scotland funded just one local police officer for every 466 residents in Edinburgh – compared with one in 314 in Greater Glasgow.

Across Scotland, the number of local officers fell by 3.38% since Police Scotland was formed in 2013.

Edinburgh saw a

7.07% decrease, despite the city council contributing £2.45 million to fund

54 local officers.

Councillor Jim Campbell believes criminals may be taking advantage of the lower police numbers.

He said: “There is a big concern the police resource here is very, very stretched.

“I would argue that Police Scotland are not resourcing policing in Edinburgh to the extent that they ought to be.

“The local policing in Edinburgh is something like 50% lower per head of the population than it is in Glasgow.

“In Edinburgh we feel that Police Scotland should justify that and if they can’t justify it then they’ve got to put in the appropriate level of local police officers based on the population.

“When you look at detection rates, we can’t figure out a justification for why Edinburgh is just not nearly as wellresourced in terms of local police officers.

“It feels that we are contributing more than any other council in Scotland by a big margin and we’re not getting the level of local police officers.

“Maybe people are aware of that and they think it’s not a bad place if you’re wanting to commit a crime.

“Our local officers do a great job in Edinburgh, but we need more of them.”