Strathclyde police officers have been drafted in to help their Dundee colleagues as part of a two-week crackdown on drugs and anti-social behaviour in city hotspots.
The first two days alone of the joint campaign Operation LABO resulted in drug recoveries and numerous warrants being served on suspected Dundee criminals.
The increased activity led to a packed custody court at Dundee Sheriff Court on Friday afternoon with a number of people who were served warrants the day before appearing in the dock.
A court source said: “A load of cops from Glasgow were up on Thursday helping to enforce warrants so there were more than 30 folk in the cells.
“A lot of the people getting served didn’t recognise the cops as they’re not from Dundee, which probably helped.”
Some of the visiting officers are from the Licensing and Violence Reduction Division in the former Strathclyde Police area.
Area Commander for Dundee South, Chief Inspector Shaun McKillop, pictured, said the operation began last Wednesday.
Mr McKillop said: “We have been able to significantly increase the police presence within Dundee and carry out a lot of pro-active work targeting offenders and getting people wanted on warrants.
“So when you’re talking about the custody list, that is where that has been generated, because we are able to go out and target these individuals, arrest them and bring them before the court.
“It’s been about trying to reduce instances of violence, identifying violent offenders and people involved in drug abuse.
“We’ve had a number of searches that have been carried out on known drug users and we’ve recovered a quantity of drugs from a number of different people through these searches.”
Mr McKillop said the introduction of the single Police Scotland force had allowed him to request resources from elsewhere.
He said: “Officers come up from the old Strathclyde area and pair up with officers from Dundee, who obviously keep them right with the area, show them where we have concerns and teach them how we police Dundee.
“It’s been used very effectively in Glasgow and Edinburgh. It’s forged some links and something I’ll look at doing at the future.
“It’s absolutely not the case that officers are being told how to do their job,” he said.