Kenny MacDonald: Police committed to keeping Fringe-goers safe

This is the busiest time of year for the Capital, with the festivals bringing a huge number of visitors to the city. During the Fringe, we really see the benefit of Police Scotland with an additional number of conventional and specialist resources brought in to ensure the safety of residents and tourists alike.

Chief Superintendent Kenny MacDonald. Picture: Ian Georgeson

Operation Summer City is an initiative dedicated to policing the Festival. As part of this, our unofficial “Fringe Venue 999” is based within East Princes Street Gardens and is where people can speak to officers for advice and get materials on crime prevention.

These include maps with taxi ranks marked out for getting home safely, advice about holding on to your stuff and “Think Twice” materials which urge people to drink responsibility and think twice about decisions made under the influence of alcohol.

Headlining our venue is Pc Bobbi and Baddie Bear, who have been very well received so far – especially among youngsters and our followers on social media. Despite their increasing fame, Bobbi and Baddie continue to promote safety messages and remain passionate about helping to ensure an enjoyable event for all!

At the end of the festival there will be, as always, a firework display with various stewarded areas which I’d urge the public to familiarise themselves with beforehand. This promises to be another impressive end to the world’s biggest arts festival, and I wish everyone a safe experience.

The results of Police Scotland’s “Your View Counts” survey are in, with nearly a thousand Edinburgh residents responding. I want to thank everyone who has responded so far, and if you want to contribute you can still do so via www.scotland.police.uk/yourviewcounts

These results reaffirmed that our divisional priorities are those of our local communities. These include tackling housebreaking and, through Operation RAC, this is significantly down across the city. I want to reassure residents that this type of crime continues to be at the forefront of our focus.

Vehicle crime was also of particular importance to responders, and we recently launched Operation Soteria across the city to tackle motorbike theft and related disorder. So far, we’ve had some fantastic results through both overt and covert tactics in gathering intelligence, deterring offences and detecting perpetrators.