Perth’s top police officer believes the city has improved dramatically since he started on the beat in a housing estate “like a war zone” 20 years ago.
Even so, said Chief Inspector Mike Whitford, area commander for Perth and Kinross, the area still has its share of crime and social problems to address.
Mr Whitford, who first policed in the city in 1994, said the area generally is “steeped in history and culture,” but it was not until he put on a police uniform that he saw the “real face of communities” and the good and bad side of people.
“I recall my first days as a beat officer in Perth and turning into one of the poorer housing estates, Muirton a short distance from the town centre and more affluent areas, yet miles apart in reality,” he said.
“I recall the marked shock I felt at the contrast.
“Most of the buildings were pre and post-war era tenements and in poor condition cold, damp and unwelcoming.
“They have all gone now, replaced by modern and much better quality housing but, at that time, the street I turned into reminded me of a war zone.”
He continued: “Along its length were some burnt-out cars, with small groups of children running around them, ‘canyoned’ between tenement blocks.
“At the far end, there was the edifice of a blackened tenement too bleak to think of ‘doing up’, with many boarded windows. Each flat was a story of poverty and hardship.”
Mr Whitford said that, although this was a shock to him, it was no different to estates he later worked on in other parts of Tayside.
“At that time, all I had to reference Perth and Kinross was the stunning beauty and general affluence of the area,” he went on.
“I later became the beat officer for that estate and spent some of my happiest years in the police working there made so by the people I met who lived and, indeed, survived there.
“They survived, often, in extreme poverty, struggling to bring up their children in very difficult circumstances, surrounded by crime and drugs, but no less loving and determined to try their best for their children.
“I recall where a father worked in a bank, going to work every day in a suit and stepping over discarded needles, urine and rubbish.
“He left his children who, when not at school, were not allowed outside because of the level of criminality, drug abuse and anti-social behaviour they were prisoners in their own home.
“Now, as the area commander to Perth and Kinross, I see so much has changed. The old housing has gone and the work of Perth and Kinross Council to improve the lives of people is evident in new and modern housing.
“The way the police operate has also greatly changed, with domestic violence given the highest priority in full recognition of the lifetime impact on victims.
“Although the face of Perth and Kinross has changed in the 20 years since I was that beat officer, the inner issues have not.
“While communities openly try to tackle problems such as drug abuse, speeding and anti-social behaviour, the domestic abuse and violence continues.
“If we are ever going to get the inner reality of the lives of many in Perth and Kinross to reflect the outer community image, we must realise it is all our responsibility to challenge such behaviour and raise the profile of domestic abuse and violence.”
The final phase of the £40 million regeneration of Muirton is taking place and consultation has begun on plans to build 25 housing association homes.