A night on the beat

Councillor Ian McAlpine went out on a night patrol with officers from Giffnock station to witness, himself, the work that they do.

Councillor McAlpine told The Extra: “I went out at around 10pm on Friday with sergeant Allison McIntyre, from Giffnock police office.

“We did a tour of the area and all seemed quiet.

“However, we received a call that there was a disturbance at the Overlee House homeless unit.

“It seemed some teens were causing a disturbance, and the police went to investigate.”

Councillor McAlpine was asked to wait in the car while sergeant MacIntyre and another officer gave chase to the suspects.

The youths escaped but councillor McAlpine indicated that if they were pursued by bicycle police, they would have been caught.

Later on, the councillor visited the centre where all the 67 CCTV cameras covering East Renfrewshire are monitored.

Councillor McAlpine praised the work of East Renfrewshire police and cited as proof of the good work that levels of crime are falling in the area.

He also highlighted the positive work being done in the community with weekly meetings between police, the community and ERC’s wardens - who meet on Mondays to discuss any crime over the weekend.

Inspector Alan Dickson, head of East Renfrewshire’s community policing, praised the unity being developed between police and the community.

He told The Extra: “We can see real advantages to working closely with our local authority partners and are confident this has had a positive effect in reducing crime and the fear of crime.”

Police Scotland is currently working on official crime statistics and they will be published later.