Call to strengthen community policing as anti-social behaviour on the up
The Scottish Government's being accused of having a "soft touch approach to crime" as figures show anti-social behaviour is up 5 percent across the country.
Scottish Conservative analysis of Police Scotland figures shows that there have been 387,856 anti-social behaviour incidents in Scotland during 2017-18, a rise of 17,794.
In addition, the statistics demonstrate that there have been over 1,000 anti-social behaviour incidents per day across Scotland.
Aberdeen City Council reported the highest increase of anti-social behaviour at 41 per cent, followed by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar at 35 per cent and Aberdeenshire at 34 per cent.
The highest number of incidents took place in Glasgow at 56,337 incidents, representing 154 incidents per day.
Commenting on the figures, Liam Kerr, Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary said:
“Anti-social behaviour has an extremely negative impact on our communities and can severely affect people’s quality of life, especially the elderly and vulnerable.
“These rising levels of anti-social behaviour clearly indicate that the SNP’s soft touch approach to crime is failing communities.
“It is no coincidence that under the SNP police numbers are falling, police morale is at an all-time low and that police officers are increasingly filling in paperwork rather than patrolling our streets.
“There must be no question of abandoning victims of anti-social behaviour or implicitly signalling to the perpetrators that they will be tolerated.
“The SNP must ensure we have enough police officers on our streets to detect and deter anyone undertaking anti-social behaviour, and reassure the public that they will be protected.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said:
“Changes in levels of anti-social behaviour are best assessed using measures of the population’s experience and all the evidence points towards a long-term, sustained reduction in Scotland.
“The Scottish Crime and Justice survey reports that the percentage of adults who think people behave in an anti-social manner in their local area fell from 46% in 2008-09 to 29% by 2016-17, while more adults than ever before feel safe walking alone after dark in their local area.
“However, there is no room for complacency and regular reporting of these incidents to the police and local authorities allows patterns of behaviour to be identified and decisions made on the best way to tackle it."