By Stefan Morkis

A SENIOR Tayside Police officer said yesterday there was no cause for alarm after new figures showed crime in Scotland has reached record levels.

Figures released by the Scottish Executive show that in Tayside, and in Scotland as a whole, there were 6% more crimes recorded in 2004/05 than the previous year.

However, this rise has been attributed to the introduction of the Scottish Crime Recording Standard (SCRS), which means that an incident no longer requires corroboration to be recorded as a crime.

Previously, incidents were not logged as crimes until evidence had been acquired to prove a crime had taken place.

In Tayside, the number of recorded crimes rose to 31,845, while in Fife recorded crime rose 7% to a total of 34,862.

There was a record total of 438,093 crimes recorded by forces across Scotland over the year, although this has been attributed to the introduction of SCRS.

There has also been a 20% increase in firearms offences in Scotland although most of these are offences involving airguns and, again, the rise is being put down to SCRS.

Although more people now live in fear of crime—as shown by Dundee City Council’s recent consumer survey that found that one third of people in the city lived in fear of becoming a victim of crime—Tayside Police’s acting assistant chief constable Iain MacLeod was keen to stress that the Executive’s figures should not be taken at face value.

“We anticipated that there would be an impact from the SCRS but there will be long-term benefits in terms of giving us a more accurate picture of what is taking place in Tayside, and how we can tackle that,” he said.

“The 6% increase has been in the lower league of offences and serious offences continue to be rare in Tayside and we have a significant success rate in solving them.

The Scottish Executive figures only include the first three months of this year and he said that crime has been falling every month since then.

“Since April our records have shown there has been a reduction in crime every month while the rate of solving crimes has remained consistent.”

Despite the introduction of SCRS, Tayside Police was the only police force to record a drop—of 5%—in miscellaneous offences such as petty assault, breach of the peace and drunkenness, although Dundee did have the second highest rate of housebreakings in the country.

“In terms of incidents of disorder, anti-social behaviour and vandalism we are really seeing the benefits of community wardens, community agencies and our partnerships across the three local authority areas,” said Mr MacLeod.

“Because crime is such a complex issue, no one organisation can tackle it single-handed.”

Police officers in Dundee have been given the power to issue on-the-spot fines for people caught engaging in anti-social behaviour and Mr MacLeod said this was also proving a success.

“That is having a big impact and one of the benefits is it frees up officers’ time, which allows them to spend a greater amount of time on patrol and be more visible to the public,” he added.

Scottish Executive justice minister Cathy Jamieson also said that the figures demonstrated that police took all crimes seriously.

“We knew when the police introduced the new crime reporting standard that it would impact on the amount of so-called minor crime recorded by the police.

“That might well give politicians like myself a more complicated presentational challenge—but it’s absolutely the right thing to do if we are to ensure that all crimes are taken seriously, and the recording of crime is more consistent and accurate in reflecting people’s real experiences.”

Ms Jamieson said that an apparent increase in the number of crimes such as rape—which increased by 7%—were down to good policing rather than an actual rise in the number of attacks.

“Take crimes of rape. Are women in more danger from sexual predators because the national figures are up by 7%? No, the increase can be explained by pro-active efforts by the police to encourage victims to come forward and report historic crimes.”

But SNP shadow justice minister Kenny MacAskill said the figures showed the true level of crime in Scotland—“and it is a grim picture”.

Tory justice spokesman Annabel Goldie said, “While the Scottish crime reporting standard may give us a more accurate representation of the number of crimes being reported, it will do nothing to make these numbers fall.”