Season of goodwill sees little cheer for police on patrols in town

Dec 24 2008 by Louise Reilly, East Kilbride News

DEALING with people who are under the influence of alcohol is virtually a daily occurrence for a police officer.

Often these people can become violent and it is not unusual to be involved in some sort of scuffle before the offender is transported to the station.

It came as no great surprise then, when on duty with the local police on Saturday night, to see an officer assaulted whilst arresting a drunk.

My shift began at 6pm with a briefing meeting where I was told the areas we would be visiting and types of calls we would be answering.

As part of the Safer South Lanarkshire initiative extra community police officers are on our streets at weekends in a bid to cut down on alcohol related crimes ensuring the public can enjoy their night out and feel safe.

Along with a high visibility police presence, East Kilbride will benefit from diversionary projects for young adults, safer travel on public transport, a crackdown on underage drinking, visits to licensed premises and the targeting of trouble ‘hot spots’ through local intelligence gathering.

The launch of the initiative complements the Safer Scotland campaign, ‘Communities Against Alcohol Fuelled Violence’, and will tackle issues such as violence, disorder, vandalism, anti-social behaviour, drug use and alcohol.

The aim is not to spoil anyone’s fun but instead to stamp out the trouble-makers leaving the majority to get on with enjoying themselves.

Our community officers generally cover specific areas of the town and target known hotspots to crack down on anti social behaviour.

On Saturday we began our shift with a tour of the Village and West Mains area in the van, visiting areas known to be popular with underage drinkers.

Along the way a 26-year-old man making his way down Graham Avenue was stopped and searched by Constables Steven Preece and Finlay Ferguson.

After finding him with nothing he shouldn’t have and ensuring there were no warrants out for his arrest, he was soon on his way.

The man in question was friendly and let the officers get on with what they had to do. I’m told this is often not the case.

Due to the miserable weather many of the hotspots were, unsurprisingly, deserted.

This was until, however, we drove to the underpass on Highfield Place where we disturbed a group of around a dozen young males who were drinking there.

They soon ran off when they spotted the van, turning round only to launch cans through the underpass towards us. After making off in the van in an attempt to capture the youths at the other side of the underpass, we were unsuccessful and carried on to visit other known drinking spots in the area.

On route Sergeant Barry McGinley told us that calls about underage drinking in the area were down by around 1000 compared with this time last year.

It was at 7pm at the town centre bus station that the alcohol-fuelled violence our police officer have to deal with on a regular basis became all too evident.

When we were driving by in the police van, a young man waiting on a bus made a rude gesture towards us and the officers stopped to have a word with him.

Constables Ferguson and Preece asked him a few questions and tried to search him but were greeted with nothing but abuse. Not complying led to the young man being arrested, but again this proved easier said than done.

After much shouting and struggling he was finally put in handcuffs but decided to make it difficult for the officers to get him in the van.

Once in the van on the way to the station, he spat on one of the officers’ faces and continued to shout abuse and threats. Again, getting the accused out of the van led to a struggle.

Once inside the station the situation escalated with the young man refusing to answer questions and continuing to shout things at the officers that I wouldn’t repeat.

He was eventually processed and escorted to a cell having been charged with breach of the peace, resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer by spitting on his face.

With the young man safely in a cell, we headed back out visiting other areas known for youth disorder including Gardenhall, Greenhills, Lindsayfield and Stewartfield. We also visited the new housing estate at Jackton. Sergeant McGinley told me this was for a number of reasons.

Firstly for the officers to get to know the area to help them respond quicker should an incident happen and also to assure the residents that their area has a police presence.

We rounded off the shift with some visits to licensed premises to check for any potential problems. For example, if a hotel has a function on with 200 guests, the police then know if a call comes in to send more than one patrol car as the incident could be large scale.

All in all it was a busy few hours and left me with a good feeling about what is being done by the community police in the area.

The current initiative runs for another three months so you’ll no doubt come across a community officer or two during your festive nights out.