Good afternoon Community Councils,

I am writing today to inform you all of a change in the way your local Community Policing Teams at Partick has been recently, and will continue to operate moving forward into the new year.

There has been a considerable change in personnel within the team over the last couple of months. This is normal within policing with your local officers moving on to different departments, whether that is for career development or any other number of contributory factors. However, in a small team such as ours this can present a unique challenge when so much valuable local knowledge and experience is lost.

Another challenge is in dealing with demand and emerging crime trends. I’m sure most of you will be aware that there has been a substantial rise in crimes of dishonesty and in particular, theft by shoplifting. There are a number of reasons for this however it is very much a national issue not unique to this area of the city. What this area does have is a thriving retail sector which has seen a sharp rise in shoplifting out with the usual increase in demand during the festive period. This has meant the Community Policing teams have had to alter our priorities to meet this demand. We have set up a shoplifting team within our department to target the priority locations and prolific offenders which has seen great success to date and will continue into the new year.

Despite these challenges, we remain committed to our Community Councils. There will be a change in how we interact with the councils however I am optimistic that it will be of mutual benefit. Effectively immediately, we will not be submitting the usual monthly written Community Council reports. These reports are time consuming for officers and are not standardised, due to the differing expectations of individual community councils. And now that our officers will, in some circumstances, have a responsibility to more than one Community Council, this will represent even more time that those officers are not out being visible in the communities in which they serve. This approach will bring us in line with the majority of Greater Glasgow Subdivisions who have already moved away from monthly reports in years gone by.

We will continue to endeavour to attend meetings where possible. Where we are prevented from doing so (ie. meetings held via Zoom, on a Monday, or at a time when your local officer is on early shift or a policing operation) a member of the Community Council will be invited to meet with officers ahead of the scheduled meeting. This meeting can be within Partick Police Station or at a local community hub. It is expected that this will improve the relationship you have with your local officers with more face-to-face interaction. It will also give the councils the opportunity to canvas their members ahead of time for their concerns which can then be addressed directly at the scheduled meetings.

Each of your local community officers will be in touch directly in the near future, in some cases to introduce themselves, and in other cases to let you know that there has been no change and I look forward to what I anticipate will be a better standard of collaboration between the Community Council and Police Scotland.

Warmest regards and Merry Christmas,

Jamie

PS Jamie Kerr G6113 Partick Local Problem Solving Team G Division

Glasgow West End Police Office

609-611 Dumbarton Road

Glasgow

G11 6HY