Item 17 - Police Scotland Report
West Dunbartonshire Council · 20 August 2026
Back to Community Planning West Dunbartonshire Management Board — 20 August 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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OFFICIAL SENSITIVE: POLICE AND PARTNERS Community Planning West Dunbartonshire Management Board Update from Argyll and West Dunbartonshire Division Date: 20th August 2026 Rep: Supt Lynsey Booth Location: Clydebank Health Centre Operation Ballaton - re-launched in April 2026 in Balloch. This is a multi- agency operation to address the increase in ASB and violence in Balloch and the wider National Park area due to the increase in seasonal numbers visiting the area. This operation sees Police Scotland partner with LLTNPA, BTP, WDC, SFRS, Scotrail and other partners to maintain public safety and minimise any seasonal disruption to the local community. Op Ballaton has been stood up countless times over the summer when the relevant trigger point has been reached (owing to the good weather we’ve been experiencing). Op Ballaton - tabletop exercise was carried out in June, in which partners tested their response plans to less-routine events that may occur. Op Ballaton - successful in addressing ASB issues on land and the volume of ASB-related issues have seen a noticeable decline from previous years. The main ASB-related issue this year is the use of PWC’s (personal watercraft – mainly jet skis) on Loch Lomond itself. This scale of this problem has grown year on year. This has seen LLTNPA and Police Scotland officers carry out joint waterborne patrols to deal with this. There has been a significant ITEM 17
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OFFICIAL SENSITIVE: POLICE AND PARTNERS increase in the enforcement activity being carried out and LLTNPA have reported more offenders to the PF for breaches of the Loch Lomond Byelaws this year than any other. Further work is ongoing with relevant partners to give us additional tactics to deal with these issues. Youth Engagement Officers - along with partners, have ran the ’Young Drivers Programme’. This has seen them deliver practical inputs on road safety to all S5 pupils (about to go into S6) at all five secondary schools in West Dunbartonshire. Various education and enforcement activity has been undertaken in this period (by Community Policing & Preventions Officers) to deal with the growing problem of the illegal use of e-scooter and non-EAPC compliant e-bikes. Youth Engagement & Preventions Officers - In June 2026, they supported an open water swimming experience event in Loch Lomond at Balloch. This event, which was held during National Drowning Prevention Week, was principally ran by the West Dunbartonshire Leisure Trust to give primary 6 and 7 pupils from West Dunbartonshire schools an awareness of the risks associated with swimming in open water. Retail crime - A police-led retailers consortium was established in June 2026, which saw approximately 2 dozen local retailers come together in a forum to address the issue of retail crime. We have seen a spike in shopliftings (which have increased by over 40% in the first quarter of the financial year), which although of concern, is representative of the national picture. Thanks to funding from the Retail Crime Task Force, police procured VHF-handheld radios which have been used to introduce a shop watch radio link scheme to members of this consortium. This allows the real time sharing of intelligence concerning the activities of known and suspected shoplifters. AI Products - Across Scotland, a trend has emerged in respect of exploitation online facilitated by use of “AI” products. This includes the modification of pictures posted online by victims and these images are subsequently modified into indecent images by online actors who subsequently make demands for finance. This is a pattern of offending recognised across the UK and is being reviewed by the National Crime Agency to ensure a robust and consistent response maximising use of investigative technologies. Within West Dunbartonshire, the Sextortion figures for this YTD are 13, with 3 of those being identified as AI images. This compares with 22 sextortion offences in WDC all last year, of which only 2 were AI-Generated
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OFFICIAL SENSITIVE: POLICE AND PARTNERS In respect of prevention, Youth Engagement Officers working within Schools in West Dunbartonshire to educate children around online safety and the reporting mechanisms available to them should they be victim or be aware of others being victim to online exploitation. Nationally, Police Scotland’s Specialised Crime Division supported by Cyber Crime supports local officers with complex online investigations targeting persons seeking to commit crimes online.