The police chief in Perth and Kinross believes that the transition to a single Scottish force has gone smoothly.
Area commander Chief Inspector Mike Whitford told The Courier that, despite pessimism from some quarters, the move to embrace the Police Scotland model has been successful.
Police Scotland was formed on April 1, when the eight regional Scottish forces merged, and Mr Whitford has been pleased with the transition process.
He said: “As far as Police Scotland is concerned, over the first nine months I could not have asked more of my officers. Despite the change and the politics of everything, the public have been fantastic.
“If you went to any other organisation and changed things, you would have found suspicion, process failure, but I’m not seeing that here.
“There is a balancing act going on with models brought forward which were known to work.”
Mr Whitford said some people looked for flaws and many wanted to see the single force fail.
“Any other organisation that has gone through the changes that we did, there would have been criticism,” he added.
“We have to meet the financial constraints and, overall, we have done well. If anything, Police Scotland has opened the door on a lot of things.
“The real keys for me are things like licensees serving people who are drunk, serving children alcohol, and then these people go out and are a victim of crime or commit crime.
“The rest of the community has to carry the pieces. Police Scotland is really driving through a consistency with regard to a pub licence.
“Domestic violence issues will never go away and, locally, I’ve had the priority around housebreaking for a while.
“I could see the impact this was having on communities in Perth and Kinross, and also addressing people driving without insurance, without licences, without MOTs, so that will not change.”
Mr Whitford said Perth and Kinross has one of the highest “conversion” rates for domestic cases and that putting a team together to crack down on housebreaking is paying dividends.
“We managed to identify groups of people who came from across Scotland and who are now facing a series of allegations and charges,” he added.