Crime down across West Dunbartonshire

May 7 2010 by Amanda Mckendrick, Lennox Herald (main ed)

POLICE have driven down crime across the area and recorded their best ever crime results.

But the area’s top cop, Divisional Commander John Thomson, has vowed to hit criminals even harder this year.

Violent crime, robbery, housebreaking, vandalism and car crime are all at their lowest level in the last seven years.

Drug supply and common assault are also down, along with breach of the peace and street drinking.

But detection rates for crimes are up, and the officers at L Division – which covers Dumbarton, Alexandria, Balloch and Helensburgh – have the highest number of positive stop searches in the Strathclyde area.

Chief Superintendent Thomson said: “The readers of the Lennox Herald responded in great number to our public requests for information.

“We are getting unprecedented support from members of the community coming forward and speaking to us, and that is the biggest cornerstone of any success we have had.

“I am very proud of the police officers and police staff.

“These are unprecedented results and the challenge is to sustain them and, where possible and practical, enhance that performance. We have set ourselves very ambitious and challenging targets for the coming year.”

He added: “It is very pleasing to find ourselves in this position, but we know that anti-social behaviour and criminality is still taking place in communities across the area – which is unacceptable – and we are committed to providing a solution.

“Our community policing officers have been a wonderful success for us – responsive, proactive, engaging and purposeful. Without that we don’t have the means to engage with people. Hopefully people are seeing a visible impact.”

The commander said police are now harnessing technology to enable them to respond to crimes in an efficient way.

He added: “Every 24 hours we review every crime. This means we can look to see if there is a pattern developing either with a particular individual or within a particular area. This means we can put the right people in the right place at the right time. We do everything we can to ensure there is no recurrence.

“Not for a minute are we trying to suggest we have cracked this. There is still disorder and that’s unacceptable.

“We will invest every effort to try to drive down crime and detect the individuals who are marching to a different beat.”