Crime goes down again in Nairn

There may be economic woes on the horizon but Nairn as a community has many advantages over other areas. One of the benefits of living in Nairn is that we have a lower crime rate compared with many other areas in the UK.
Inspector MacLeod told the Ward Forum meeting in the Courthouse last night that crime was down again in Nairn over the last two months in comparison with the previous year. Here’s some of the figures he presented:
2009, 2010 ,
Thefts 17, 14
Vandalism 17, 9
Underage drinking 15, 9
Drink Driving 4,3
Breach of Peace 20, 14

Searches had gone up from 22 to 40 but the Inspector told the meeting that this didn’t indicate more crime just that the police could now devote more time to the drug-related searches etc.
Liz was glad that crime had gone down but at the same time worried that we might lose police officers because of these reductions, Nairn not being ‘such a criminal area’. Angus MacLeod told her that it was Northern Constabulary policy to prevent crime and to be visible in the community. He said that there were no plans at the moment to reduce officer numbers.

Organised crime and whisky at Dulsie

Thanks to Irene for another of her research snippets that do so much to give us glimpses of Nairnshire's past. The above article is from March 1818. It sounds like quite a brutal encounter between the authorities and the smugglers and more reminiscent of a wild frontier area than the quiet peacful scenes we know today.

Stranger things have happened up at Dulsie however. Here's one small snippet from Richard Thomson's The Natural History of Highland Parish, a local residents approaches Drochaid an t-sithein (the fairy knoll bridge) on the way home:

'One dark night, we are told, a belated drover from a Cawdor market, happened to pass this way. On approaching the bridge, he was greatly astonished and frightened beyond measure, to observe rays of the most brilliant light beaming through rocky foundations, at numerous rents and cracks where the sharpest eyes in the country had never before been able to detect. '

Crime reduced 22% - 7 out of 10 crimes detected

Inspector MacLennan gave his regular presentation to the Ward Forum on Wednesday night too. He assured the gathering that teams of hit squad traffic wardens would not descend form Inverness once Sandy the warden had retired. He pointed out that police officers could also be utilised for these duties. He responded to a query about an individual phoning Nairn police station and speaking to someone in Aviemore. This would be a rare occasion and would happen only if support staff were not available, to have a police officer manning the phone would mean that they would not be available to be where they should be – on the street. He said that it doesn’t happen often or effect service delivery. The Inspector reported that the recent trend of violence towards police officers had ceased and that hopefully this had just been a blip. He reported the recent attempted murder in Queenspark and had increased the police presence in the area in the aftermath to reassure the community.
Not only do we live in an area where 7 out of 10 crimes are detected but there has been a 22% reduction in crime since April 2009 (in the force area generally this was 12%).
Operation Magma had no ended and in its place was operation round-up where the police would now work closely with the NHS in engaging with youths and their parents.
All in all a very positive report from Inspector MacLennan and in this age of technology does it matter too much who answers the phone as long as they can get a police officer to you when you need one?

Crime clean-up rate 71.1%

The Northern Constabulary sends an officer to all the Community Council meetings if operating conditions permit and last night Constable Paul Johnstone introduced himself to the public meeting organised by Nairn Suburban Com C. He gave a report on local campaigns and some issues the police are dealing with and told the meeting that the local crime clean-up rate was 71.1%. Constable Johnstone explained that this was the highest in the force area and well above other forces in the country, he went on to say that they were aiming to improve on that but they couldn't have achieved the 71.1%without the help of the community.

Evidence, if any were needed, that we do indeed live in a community fellow Gurnites. We have to be vigilant in the years to come, look how the Highland Council is centralising its affairs in Inverness and the danger is that this process, plus the council's planning policy could go some way to destroying the community spirit in our town. Could one be justified in labelling Highland Council 'an enemy of community'?

It is with this in mind that the Gurn was so delighted to see the public and the Suburban councillors support the proposal for a single community council for the town. More in the post below.