Notes from
Community Safety Meeting held 4th December 2014 at Denny Bowling Club.
Present:
Cllr John McNally, Cllr M Oliver, Cllr B McCabe, Cllr J Blackwood.
Chief Inspector M Patterson, Insp J Kellet, Bill Gray Neighbourhood
Watch and Franca Cianni, Area Estates
Co-ordinator and Community Safety Wardens. + members of the public.
Bill
Gray chaired the meeting and opened meeting thanking all for
attending. He indicated they were looking to extend the neighbourhood
watch scheme to Banknock.
The theft of car keys from properties was a concern for the community.
BG
noted he regularly put out alerts via the neighbourhood watch when
anything happens. They currently have 20 neighbourhood watch signs in
the Denny area. Denny currently has
81 members on the scheme. You can join neighbourhood watch on line at
Denny and District Neighbourhood Watch.
The
area currently has 9 community police officers for the Denny-Banknock
Ward. The Fire Service is also promoting home safety with safety visits
and installation of smoke alarms
when necessary.
Chief
Inspector Paterson noted community concerns regarding the perception of
policing in the area in light of the recent incidents that have taken
place. She indicated that she
has daily meetings to look at incidents in the area, identify the risk
for victims and prioritise actions required.
Crime
in the area was down 10% (Denny/Banknock Ward) Chief Inspector Paterson
noted these figures were also subjected to audit. There has been a 14%
drop in minor assaults in the
area.
With
regards to the police station it was noted most contact was now made by
phone and some via the internet. CI Patterson said it was a positive
sign if you didn’t see police
in the area as it was an indication nothing was happening in that area
and resources were targeting other areas of need. The detection rate
for house burglaries was around 50%, this we were assured is a very high
detection rate for this type of crime. The
Community Investigation Unit based in Denny has 10 x officers to focus
on the Denny area. This and the Community Safety Partnership which
consists of, Housing and Fire Service, etc look at targeting shared
resources in target areas.
Chief
Inspector Paterson went on to say the policing model had changed in May
this year. Community teams are now on new shift patterns. A number of
these shifts now
see officers deployed in plain cloths.
On
social media C Inspector Paterson noted Falkirk had the highest twitter
response in
Scotland. She went on to say she also wrote a weekly article in the
Falkirk Herald. If you have an interesting article regarding the police
run it by her and she may submit
in the paper. C Inspector Paterson also cautioned the reporting on
social media as it often report inaccurately what was actually
happening. If you think a serious incident has happened in your area,
phone the police they will confirm or otherwise. They
will not however give you any information on an on-going case.
Franca
Cianni, Area Estates Co-ordinator spoke about the role of the community
safety team. They were created to deal with ASB such as young people
making a nuisance of themselves,
noise, jumping in front of cars etc. The litter team is also her
responsibility. They can issue fixed penalty tickets now £80 (just gone
up). They work in conjunction with detached youth teams and SACRO.
Warning letters are issued if person is under 16
with fixed penalty tickets issued if 16 +. Alternatives for u16s are
education lessons they must attend in relation to litter and litter
picks if appropriate to reinforce message.
A number of questions were asked on the night and included:
Q: Community safety – how do you prioritise?
A:
database information coded to highlight areas of prioritised work.
Staff are allocated specific areas. Individuals are contacted for
further information if required and are
also contacted with updates to complaint. They have a Facebook page
that provides updates.
Q: 101 calls…it takes about 10 minutes to explain problem to operator before you get passed to an officer. Why is this?
A: Allows officers to assess priority of issue. Helps ensure something serious is not missed.
Q: Neighbourhood Wardens, why stop them at 10.00pm?
A:
any complaints after this time are deemed to be of a more criminal
nature. This is done in conjunction with police as there are often
behavioural changes.
Q: CCTV is not monitored or recorded.
A:
Agreement service in
Falkirk will remain the same as before. CCTV does have recording
function. Operator looks after a number of banks of cameras. Allows the
police to look back at incidents that have happened and obtain
evidence.
Q: Homeless people creating problems in Denny.
A:
This is Housing policy. It does create problems. Police do not make
comment on types of offenders in area. eg sex offenders. Ward report is
provided to community councils.
Police attended 70 from 72 community council meeting in last year and
take them seriously.
Q: Church had windows broken recently. People are sleeping in doorway etc, what phone number do I call?
A: 999 is the emergency number and 101 is the non emergency number for contacting the police.
Inspector
Kellet informed the audience that police had targeted young people
hanging around in groups to help reduce the fear of crime near the ATC
hall in Denny. Community Safety
Teams could also target this.
Chief
Inspector Paterson informed that Police Scotland has to loose £100m
every year for the next 10 years. This means putting focus on what
needs to be done. She went on to say
she and Insp Kellet will take email messages and phone calls from the
public from the public to make them more assessable.
Q: Rural crime in this area is it a problem in Denny? (Carronbridge in particular)
A:
West area of division a problem for this sort of crime. Smart Water
substance allows police to identify if someone has this on their person.
Sign noting smart water area has
helped reduce crime.
With
regards to Carronbridge it is not problematic at this time. Chief
Inspector will put details of link out to neighbourhood watch regarding
smart water.
Q:
Family victim of crime. Household break in/car stolen. Police response
great. However when this happens people one street away have no idea
this has happened. Concerned no awareness
in this area.
A:
Herald article noting this had happened. C Inspector notes this type of
crime weekly in paper. People were advised not to leave keys near the
front door. Thieves were ‘fishing
through letterboxes’ stealing them and then stealing the vehicles.
Intervention
Officers (Police home security officer) will carry out a home security
survey and advise on any minor changes you could make to make your
property safer. PC Hunter
is based at Denny and PC Gardiner at Falkirk.
Q: Speeding traffic. Spine Road on Facebook. Never heard anything else about this?
A:
Police were not aware of this as an issue at this time. Insp Kellet
asked that people report such incidents if it becomes an issue again.
Q: Volume of calls. Everyone else thinks someone else will phone police. Example being recent quad bike incident in the
Gala
Park.
A:
Police can chap door and speak to individual concerned. Members of the
public are encourage to provide information to them, especially if they
know who it is that is committing
the crime.
The
Fire Service indicated they had leaflet dropped, in particular elderly
people, for home fire safety checks. They also indicated the number of
malicious fires in the Denny area
had gone down.
