Our dedicated officers have risen to the Covid challenge – Chief Inspector David Happs

In my Capital Cops column earlier this year I referenced how important it is to me that we are listening to and acting on your concerns at a local, city-wide and national level. At that time I was looking forward to reporting on our year to date success of reducing crime rates and increasing detection rates in Northwest Edinburgh and Covid was just starting to become more widely known.

Chief Inspector David Happs is the Local Area Commander for Northwest Edinburgh

Whilst so much has changed since then one thing that hasn’t diminished is the commitment and dedication shown by your local police officers and staff who have been required to attend and respond to incidents across the area – supporting victims of crime, assisting others in crisis or vulnerable situations. I cannot thank them enough for their continued efforts.

I’m also hugely grateful for the support and co-operation our policing teams have encountered from communities across Northwest Edinburgh during this period and it is encouraging to see early indications that public confidence in policing continues to grow.

We all want life to become as ‘normal’ as possible and as quickly as possible – that is entirely understandable. Please continue to be patient, respect others and follow the guidelines as some of the restrictions are eased. Recent spikes in coronavirus cases throughout Scotland serve as a very real reminder the virus still presents a genuine risk to public health.

We have had to adapt some working practices but in many ways we have also enhanced our close working relationships with our partners in housing, social work, education, fire service and other sectors during this time as we all work together in providing safer communities. We have already started planning for the Halloween and Bonfire period and maintaining public safety – more about this will follow next time.

You may also have read about the reduced funding arrangements for community officers. I am reassured by our Divisional Commander’s continued commitment to maintaining a high-quality service through our Community Policing teams across the city.

Our social media feed @EdinPolNW provides a small snapshot of the benefit of these officers and their preventative and proactive activity across the area. We have maintained our focus on what matters to you locally – tackling road safety concerns, reducing break-ins to homes, acting upon intelligence in regard to drug dealing and focusing on violent crime and those causing harm in the area. I am pleased this focus continues to drive down recorded crime across the area.

Working alongside their response colleagues and other specialist teams, community officers have been busy recently – enforcing speed limits outside schools as pupils return, delivering bike marking and crime prevention advice to reduce pedal cycle crime and working closely with housing providers to act upon antisocial behaviour concerns.

Please stay safe and continue to work with us. Our Community Policing Team contact details may be different (email: [email protected]) – but we’re still here to help.

Chief Inspector David Happs is the Local Area Commander for Northwest Edinburgh