Police chiefs have been forced to deny that they are ignoring victims of crime.
Several councillors raised concerns that police are not adequately responding to reports of crime or keeping victims informed of developments in their cases.
Chief Superintendent Eddie Smith, who is in charge of Tayside Division, said that confidence in Police Scotland was at an all-time high and said he would like to speak to any dissatisfied victims directly.
The fears follow a report showing that just one in six housebreakers is brought to justice in Dundee, with West End member Fraser Macpherson saying that one constituent had been neglected by police after her house was broken into.
Mr Macpherson told the city council’s police and resources committee: “Housebreaking is difficult enough to deal with, given the intrusion into your private life and loss of property.
“But one constituent has been in touch with me saying that she was not kept informed about what was happening (with the progression of her case).”
In another instance, Labour member Lesley Brennan said that a number of her constituents had stopped reporting anti-social behaviour on the police non-emergency number, 101, because their calls were either not answered or not acted upon.
She added that a 27.2% drop in the number of complaints regarding disorder might have more to do with people no longer bothering to report crimes than effective policing.
She said: “People have been phoning in to the police non-emergency line, reporting anti-social behaviour, but no one ever comes out. Nothing is done.”
Further disaffection with the service was also apparent in Broughty Ferry, according to constituents who had contacted local councillor Laurie Bidwell.
Mr Smith said that officers would normally look to contact victims of crime within a week to update them on their case and that he would look into ways of monitoring the reliability of the non-emergency number as a method of reporting crime.
He said: “If we are not delivering the service that we should be, then I would like to know about it. We are failing people if that is the way they feel.”
Mr Smith was answering questions from members following the publication of Tayside Divison’s quarterly performance review.
The report reveals that just 16.2% of housebreakings are detected, which Mr Smith said was down to criminals targeting outbuildings, with break-ins to dwellings at a five-year low.
He also pointed to the force’s strong record on robbery, which has a detection rate of nearly 100%.