Rhiannon Spear has provided the following summary of the recent meeting with the Police regarding crime in the area (see previous blogpost)

Meeting Report

Over the last couple of weeks the Queen Square WhatsApp group has seen an increase in people reporting thefts from their cars, so I organised a meeting with local Councillors and Police to discuss what was going on in the area. Councillors John Molyneux, Norman MacLeod and Zen Ghani all attended the meeting as well as Community Policing Inspector Cennydd Smith, all of their contact details can be found at the bottom of this report.

The biggest takeaway from the meeting is that when we believe there has been a theft or an attempted theft you must report this to the Police. The Police have crime statistics for the area and Cennydd brought these with him but it was clear at the meeting that there was possibly more happening within the Strathbungo area than was actually being reported to the police. Cennydd stressed the importance of reporting to local policing as resources are deployed based on the need in local areas. If things are not being reported local policing will allocate resources to areas with higher reports of crime. If there is an emergency or you see an ongoing incident call 999, otherwise call 101 to make a crime report, this can be done retrospectively.

Inspector Smith explained that any resident who is worried can have the police attend their property to carry out a personal crime prevention survey. If you would like to organise one of these please use the email for Inspector Smith and the Community Team at the end of the report. More general crime prevention advice can be found here.

We discussed other crime prevention tools:

  • Southside Central Area Partnership has previously funded ‘Selectamark’ kits for areas that are experiencing an increase in crime. Selectamark is an invisible mark placed on items as a crime prevention method, you can watch Inspector Cennydd explain exactly how it has been used in Govanhill here. To get maximum benefit from this kind of kit the Inspector recommends a full community approach as the more it is publicised the better the deterrent. I am happy to take this conversation forward with the police and Councillors.
  • Specific to car security Inspector Cennydd recommended Faraday bags and pouches to keep remote keys in to prevent them from being cloned and used to access the cars on the street. These are relatively cheap and can be found online, however Inspector Cennydd explained that they should be ‘Secured by Design’ accredited.
  • Lighting on the street was discussed and property owners were encouraged to cut back trees that may be restricting the light on the street. Local Councillors are going to ensure that all lights are in working order.
  • Permanent front and back door lights act as crime prevention as do the presence of video door bells such as RING Doorbells.
  • We discussed revisiting the conversation around a local Neighbourhood Watch initiative and were reassured that the model has changed since initial discussions by The Strathbungo Society.

The meeting was well attended, worthwhile and provided a great deal of reassurance. Discussions continued with what was being done to address the use of fireworks and prevent the build up of combustibles in our back lanes and streets as well as bike safety and the roll out of the new standard 20mph policy throughout Glasgow. There has been the offer of a joint visit with the Fire Brigade to discuss the best placement of bins to avoid potential hazards as well as an event in Strathbungo to discuss bike marking and security in the new year.

A summary of this report will be printed in the next edition of the Strathbungo Society Newsletter. If anyone has any questions or would like to follow up on anything from the meeting I am happy to be contacted on rhiannonvspear@gmail.com, all other contacts are below.

Cllr Jon Molyneux: jon.molyneux@glasgow.gov.uk
Cllr Zen Ghani: Zen.Ghani@glasgow.gov.uk
Cllr Norman MacLeod: norman.macleod@glasgow.gov.uk

Insp Cennydd Smith: Cenny.Smith@scotland.police.uk
Community Team: GreaterGlasgowLPSTGorbals@scotland.police.uk