Council funded police officers withdrawn from streets

A decision by Police Scotland to withdraw council funded officers from the streets of Midlothian will cause “immense suffering” to local communities, it was claimed this week.

Midlothian Councillors were told the force had refused £557,000 to provide up to 11 officers making up the Midlothian Community Action Team (MCAT) which has been operating in the county for a decade.

They were told the force had said the funding would only cover a reduced number of officers and had rejected it as they were moving to a new ‘enhanced community model’ of policing across the force.

Labour councillor Derek Milligan described the loss of the MCAT team as a major blow for local residents and businesses.

He said: “I cannot understand how we have an organisation like Police Scotland being offered more than half a million pounds to put frontline officers in here front and foremost in the community (and turning it down).

“Taking 11 police officers off the frontline that we could target towards problem areas is going to cause an immense problem in our communities and an immense amount of suffering.”

Councillors were asked to agree to use some of the funds earmarked for the annual MCAT costs to scope out a new ‘in house’ model to deal with antisocial behaviour by council leader Kelly Parry as one of the options available to them moving forward.

Councillor Parry told a meeting of the full council: “”There will not be anyone in this room who has not spent an immense amount of time dealing with issues such as antisocial behaviour, it is undoubtedly one of the highest priorities for the public, particularly at the moment and I think this council should be seen to be taking action to deal with antisocial behavour and, where possible, a preventative approach to stop issues escalating.”

Councillors heard that negotiations with Police Scotland over continuing funded officers in the county failed to come up with a solution.

A report said: “The offer (£557,000) has not been accepted as Police Scotland has subsequently produced an enhanced community policing model adopted across its 13 divisions which is focused upon preventing and addressing Crimes of Violence, Violence Against Women and Girls, Acquisitive Crime, Road Safety and Tackling Serious and Organised Crime.”

Councillor Colin Cassidy told the meeting the council had the ability to deal with issues itself.

He said: “We need to start looking as a council at what our problems are in society and it can be quite easily solved because we have people sitting in council houses with contracts they have signed.

“One example I give is that we had certain people causing problems in Dalkeith and we sent people to their house to speak to their parents and overnight that problem was solved.

“We need to be proactive about it and go knocking on doors, the police do not have time for that.”

However, councillor Milligan questioned what happened when issues were caused by people who were not council tenants.

He said: “What happens when it is a private estate and we have no involvement. We have to remember as well that it is not just youngsters involved in antisocial behaviour. It is a fine line now where we are calling things which in the past were classed as criminal behaviour, now antisocial behaviour.”

Councillor Milligan called for group leaders to sit down with Police Scotland to discuss their plans and councillor Parry asked fellow councillors to approve moving forward with investigations into an alternative model for the council as well as seeking to meet with police to establish the impact of their new approach and discuss plans for the future.

The motion was unanimously supported by councillors.

Police Scotland have been asked for a comment.