Capital Cops: Staffing up for Operation Festival

As Edinburgh gears up to enjoy our yearly festival, local officers will be joined by colleagues from across the country to provide a safe and secure city for everyone visiting, working and living in the Capital during this period.

As part of Operation Summer City, officers will be working in and around the city centre, starting at the Five Telegrams opening ceremony, through until the Virgin Money Fireworks closing ceremony.

Our priority is to keep performers and the public safe throughout the month, and you will see us and about on foot, pedal cycles and using our festival police stations – Unofficial Fringe Venue 999 and the Police Information Centre. Venue 999 returns to Princes Street Gardens, while the iconic Information Centre is based on the High Street. Please do pop in and say hello.

With the recent good weather we have seen plenty of people enjoying the sunshine in our local parks, with the Meadows and Princes Street Gardens being very busy.

We are deploying our officers in these areas as part of Operation Proust, aimed at preventing anti-social behaviour in these open spaces.

Car crime has increased in recent months both in the city centre and south side. Officers will be out in our residential areas, day and night, looking for the culprits for these crimes. I would ask the public for help in combatting this by reporting any suspicious activity. As ever, the message is to remove your valuables from vehicles.

With 2018 being the Year of Young People, our community officers have been busy making the most of this momentous year. We organised a schools football tournament at the Inch Park in June in which more than 120 schoolchildren took part. This was a great event and enjoyed by many, offering our young a platform to show their talents on the football field, whilst breaking down the barriers between police and our youth community.

Community officers also held a local motorcycle open day, offering security and road safety advice, with police Operation Orbit motorcycles present, generating great interest.

On the road safety theme, May and June have seen a number of police operations looking at the problems of speeding motorists. These were well received with the 20mph speed limit enforced across the south east area. These operations will continue for the rest of the year.

I’d encourage all residents, businesses and visitors to continue to call us if they know where potential criminality is taking place and we will respond appropriately and take action against those involved.

Information can be passed to your local officer, to Police Scotland on 101 or anonymously to the charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

As always, daily policing updates are posted to our @EdinPolSE Twitter account, so please follow us for regular information on what’s happening in your community.

Chief Inspector Murray Starkey is the Local Area Commander for South and East Edinburgh.