A resident of Gleneagles Road in Dundee says locals fear a police clampdown on drug dealers in St Mary’s is pushing the problem into their area.
The man, who asked not to be named, spoke out after addicts’ needles were found just yards away from a children’s play area near his home on Saturday evening.
“What seems to be going on is that more of the junkies are coming down here to buy their drugs because of the surveillance in St Boswell Terrace,” he said. “Lots of kids were out playing last night and then we found needles in the street.”
He said the situation has been getting worse over the past couple of weeks.
“The dealers are being pretty blatant about it. You can actually see them counting out money in the street.”
The worried resident said he had contacted the police on a number of occasions “but they don’t seem to be that interested.” Finding the needles was the final straw.
“There is a grass park, a football pitch and a playpark and this was just about 10 metres from that,” he said. “It was my wife and a neighbour who saw them in the middle of the pavement and it was just so lucky that they got there first and not one of the kids.
“They pushed them over into the gutter and phoned the police and explained where it was.”
A police spokeswoman confirmed officers had arranged for the needles to be removed.
“I saw a drug deal going on a few weeks ago and I gave the police the registration of the car and who was in it but no one has ever got back to us,” the resident went on.
He said there has been a problem with “a drug dealer known to the police” in the area for a number of years but it has become considerably more widespread over the past fortnight a matter of particular concern to residents as the school holidays are in full swing.
He suggested the well-publicised operation to deter dealers in St Mary’s may be having a detrimental effect on nearby Ardler.
“We are the first street down from St Mary’s and we are concerned because there are hundreds and hundreds of kids in this area,” he added.
Chief Inspector Dave Barclay agreed that concentrating on one area can move the problem on to another.
He said, “If our intelligence is saying that there is significant drug dealing in any particular area we use disruption tactics, which can vary from straightforward drug enforcement warrants to something as small as knocking on a person’s door and saying ‘We know what you’re doing and cut it out’.”
However, dealers can be only too quick to take advantage of the situation.
“Once things cool down quite often it can be a case of another marketing opportunity for another drug dealer and we then have to address that,” he added.
“We would like to try to get a solution to this eternal problem but unfortunately quite often our disruption can move it from A to B. If we could educate people to stop taking and dealing drugs that would be finally it. That would be the end game.”
Mr Barclay said it is vital that the public continue to report suspected dealers to help police build an accurate picture of the problem in a particular area.
“I would encourage people whose lives are being affected by drug dealing to keep letting us know because we need intelligence and the co-operation of the public and to keep the public on board with us to try to eradicate the problem.”