Huge efforts are being made across Dundee to tackle crime and protect the city’s most vulnerable people from harm.
The latest figures from Police Scotland and Dundee City Council reveal that crime levels have dropped across and that fear of crime has also reduced.
Road safety has also been improved and the risk to “life, property and the environment” from fire has been reduced.
Nonetheless, a record number of applications have been made to the Dundee Community Safety Partnership during 2015/16 seeking funding for a range of safety projects.
The latest round of funding sees £40,000 awarded to 13 individual projects working to tackle crime and protect people from harm.
In addition, the council has continued to utilise its own funds to address issues in what it considers to be “problem areas”.
Community Safety and Public Protection Committee convener Alan Ross said the record number of applications was to be welcomed.
“This highlights the number of initiatives across the city aimed at keeping people in our communities safe,” he said.
Though some of the sums handed-out are relatively small, the council believes each can have a big impact.
More than a quarter of the money made available has gone to deal with the impact of crime.
It has been allocated to enable vulnerable groups and individuals to be provided with personal safety alarms.
Victim Support has also been backed to enable it to recruit additional volunteers, while £5,000 has been dedicated to “target hardening”.
That means providing additional security measures for vulnerable residents and those who have already been victims of crime in particular.
Police Scotland has been awarded £3,110 to enable it to purchase Skyguard Phones for some of the city’s most vulnerable victims of domestic abuse.
The software transforms mobile telephones into secure personal safety devices, sending location and identity details, as well as a voice call to an incident management centre, where staff can then assess how to help.
Significant sums have also been dedicated to parental information on E-safety, an anti-radicalisation project and to efforts to reduce the harm caused by substance abuse.
