Police Operation Crackle tackles firework safety - Kieran Dougal

As we come out what has been a challenging couple of weeks for Police Scotland and UK policing as a whole, we now turn our focus towards fireworks safety.

Chief Inspector Kieran Dougal

Operation Crackle is our annual campaign for the Bonfire Night and Halloween period and will be supported by the national public order campaign, Operation Moonbeam.

Operation Crackle aims to keep the public and emergency personnel safe and ensure those responsible for the criminal and antisocial use of fireworks are brought to account.

Planning for this year has been ongoing for several months, working alongside Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, SSPCA and City of Edinburgh Council to name a few. We will be engaging with young people through schools around the risks associated with fireworks. There will be a zero tolerance approach towards violence and threatening behaviour.

Please have a discussion with any young people under your care or supervision about the dangers of handling, purchasing or setting off fireworks. In the run up to bonfire weekend dispose of your rubbish appropriately and please report any anti-social behaviour, disorder, unauthorised fireworks sellers to Police Scotland on 101 or in an emergency 999.

Alternatively you can report anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800555111. For more advice please go to the SSPCA website at scottishspca.org and search Firework Safety.

More information on fireworks and Bonfire Safety will be released in due course and I now want to focus on the work that my officers have carried out to keep North East Edinburgh communities safe.

We continue our work on Operation Elate to improve community safety and wellbeing around Cables Wynd House, Linksview House and the surrounding Leith area. Working with the community and partners we are tackling the harm caused by illicit drug supply and organised criminality. We recently executed a drugs warrant which resulted in the seizure approximately £1 million of cannabis. A 29 year old man has been arrested and is remanded in custody.

During this operation our Community and Initiative officers utilising specialist resources such as dogs, search and public order teams are sending out a strong message that illicit substances and associated criminality will not be tolerated. In addition we have executed multiple warrants and seized £100,000 of illicit substances throughout the wider North East Edinburgh area.

We supported the World Suicide Prevention Week with stalls in North East Edinburgh and the wider division. Working alongside partners to provide support and guidance. PC Bell presented at the Lothian Care Conference for World Alzheimer’s Month on the Herbert Protocol. We regularly deal with reported missing persons with dementia and in some circumstances the risks are extremely high so it is vital that we act quickly.

A completed Herbert Protocol enhances our ability to quickly establish information such as places of significance where they may head to and other information relating to an individual to enable us to trace them safe and well as quickly as possible. We have worked closely with colleagues at the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership, Scottish Care and with Social Work to develop this. More information and the form and how to complete it can be found on the Police Scotland website.

Please follow us on Twitter @EdinPolNE to keep up to date on the latest advice and activities in your local area.

Chief Inspector Kieran Dougal, Local Area Commander for North East Edinburgh