Overall crime rates across Tayside have fallen during an ”unprecedented” year for the police force.
Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Angela Wilson praised the commitment of staff over what she said has been an extraordinarily busy period.
She was speaking at the Tayside Joint Police Board meeting in Forfar on Monday and explained that, as well as handling the normal day-to-day duties, the force has had to cope with a high number of murders this year as well as meeting the demands of a string of high-profile events including a visit from the Queen as part of her diamond jubilee tour and the London Olympics.
A report before the committee revealed there had been 545 fewer crimes across the three local authority areas, marking a reduction of almost 7% compared with last year.
Among the success stories is the robbery detection rate, which sits at 78.1% against a target of 70%.
And Tayside has seen a reduction in violent crime of around 20% and a drop in vandalism of around 10%.
It was not all good news, though, with the force failing to achieve two out of four crime reduction targets by September.
Despite this, Ms Wilson voiced her confidence that crime levels would fall by the end of the year.
”I want to recognise the hard work that has been undertaken by all our staff across Tayside,” she added. ”There is no such thing as a quiet year in Tayside Police but this last year has been quite unprecedented.”