DRINK DRIVE messages in Polish are to be displayed on the rear of police vehicles in Fife in a bid to make sure workers from the country understand the law and the dangers involved.

It is just one way the Fife force is seeking to improve relationships with migrant workers who may be reluctant to engage with the police due to their experience of policing in their home countries.

The move to forge stronger links builds on trailblazing work carried out this summer in north-east Fife, where farming and tourism jobs attract an estimated 8000 migrant workers, mainly from Poland but also from other former communist bloc countries such as Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Romania.

A report to the police, fire and safety committee yesterday recognised such workers are vital to the local economy, but also noted some were reluctant to speak to the police because of the kind of policing they were accustomed to at home.

Superintendent Bill Lawrie, the divisional police commander for north-east Fife, said, “We have to bear in mind that community- based policing may be a new concept to some migrant workers arriving in the United Kingdom and seeking police help and talking to the police when an incident happens may not have been encouraged.

“Some come from cultures where road safety legislation and enforcement isn’t the issue it is here and where the laws are different.

“In some of the new European Union member states, there are greater issues relating to domestic violence and carrying knives can be accepted as routine.

“The migrant workers community is quite a hard-to-reach audience but we are already making inroads into getting across the message that the police in Fife are here to help—come and speak to us if you are in trouble.”