Police Scotland Update
Argyll and Bute Council · 31 October 2023
Back to Bute and Cowal Area Community Planning Group — 31 October 2023 and its agenda
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Police Scotland Update Fraud Prevention and Awareness Our popular and educational Scam Savvy Quiz inputs have continued with our vulnerable groups as crimes of fraud are still of concern. Locally there has been a bespoke input provided in partnership with the Macular Society to a group of people with sight loss in Dunoon as they were identified as being particularly vulnerable. This enabled a great discussion using ideas such as code words for people attending at the door to help identify cold callers. These talks continue to be available for any community group or local organisations including community councils. During this reporting period, we responded to a number of calls on the Isle of Bute regarding bogus workers who had cold called at a number of addresses offering roofing work (and carrying out sub-standard work). In partnership with ACHA, assessments of work completed at each property were carried out by ACHA staff within 48 hours which provided Police Scotland with sufficient evidence to investigate a number of fraud offences with a positive line of enquiry. This was using the partnership agreement designed in 2022 to assist tackle doorstep crime. One of the most common scams we have seen across Bute and Cowal has been around Sextortion. This almost wholly is targeted to young males (under 30 years of age). Sextortion is sexual extortion. It involves the threat of having sexual information, photos or videos shared. This is done to get money from the victim, to control behaviour or to pressure them for further images. Many sextortions start with seemingly harmless flirting on social media or dating sites. Criminals are experts at creating fake profiles that appear genuine. Flirtatious conversations quickly turn sexual and the victim is actively encouraged to remove clothing, perform a sexual act on camera or share explicit images. These images and videos are often recorded without the victim’s knowledge and then can be held to ransom. The criminals will often have already accessed your social media contacts and will threaten to share these images with them unless you comply with their demands. As young males are being told their images will be shared with everyone they know, this is having an impact on their mental health with victims often feeling embarrassed and ashamed they are often keeping themselves isolated rather than reporting to Police and reaching our for support. Police Scotland would encourage everyone to share awareness around this either through social media, newsletters or in conversation with young males you know. If any members have ideas or suggestions on how we can help education young males on the risk involved with this type of offence.
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Bereavement Support Local officers meet people affected by bereavement as part of their daily role. Officers are now able to provide family and friends of deceased person with a full support pack which has practice advice and emotional support contacts. Working with Argyll and Bute Registrars, NHS Highland Chaplaincy, Argyll and Bute Citizens Advice Bureau, Change Mental Health and Cruse Bereavement, packs provide those suffering from bereavement with advice they can look at when they are ready to and aim to reduce distress. Road Safety Following a fatality on the Argyll road network involving a towing vehicle, a series of Safe Towing videos have been produced and shared via our social media channels. This follows a change in legislation around driving licence requirements for those towing trailers, caravans, boat trailers and horseboxes. Police Scotland worked with a DVSA approved assessor in Campbeltown to produce these videos. These aim to help people understand legal towing limits, hitching, unhitching and safety checks. These are available on our local facebook page for anyone to look at, at any time. A Partnership Approach to Road Safety group is being formed with representation from across West Dunbartonshire and Argyll and Bute. This group will focus on locations of concern and key contributing factors from road traffic collisions where someone has been killed or seriously injured to enable us to prioritise education and enforcement towards key locations or demographics.
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Community Intelligence During this reporting period, officers in Dunoon, targeted proactive policing by our CID team and uniformed officers has resulted in a number of drug detections in Dunoon where 4 persons were charged with being concerned in the supply of, possessing, cultivating and/or producing controlled drugs. Execution of these drugs warrants enabled drugs with an estimated street value of just over £5,000 to be seized along with other drug producing equipment. Drug warrants were also executed on the Isle of Bute resulting in a number of people being charged with supplying and possessing controlled drugs. Reducing harm caused by drugs in our communities remains a priority. Our local policing teams continue to robustly police those who deal drugs in our community and we work with partners and the public to encourage the capture of information to help us secure these drug search warrants. Youth Engagement Our Youth Engagement Officers worked closely with Live Argyll to welcome back the Friday Night Football project which ran throughout the summer holidays. This focussed on deterring youths from ASB and provided them a focus during the weekend. PSYV Dunoon attended King's Honours event alongside other groups from throughout the country. This provided the young people with a really positive experience and there was excellent feedback received from parents. The Dunoon PSYV have also deployed at the Inveraray Highland Games and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Coastline Safety At the end of September, a multi-agency security and rescue exercise was held on the Isle of Bute. Police Scotland worked closely with Argyll and Bute Council, Border Command, Ministry of Defence Police Marine Unit, Caledonian MacBrayne and Rothesay Coastguard Rescue Team through a range of scenarios to help keep our coastlines safe.
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