Days of action to target serious and organised crime in North East
On 23 and 24 February, Community Safety partners from Police Scotland, Aberdeenshire Council and Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership were involved in two days of targeted action to address the harms caused by Serious and Organised Crime in the Banff, Turriff, Fraserburgh and Peterhead areas, and to provide support to vulnerable people who are being exploited by these criminals.
Six warrants were executed over the course of the operation, resulting in the recovery of personal quantities of cocaine, cannabis and various weapons, including knives, a sword and an air weapon.
Five people, who were detained during these warrants, were provided with immediate support from the Aberdeenshire Responsive Intervention Engagement Service (ARIES) team and integrated into support services, with one being provided with urgent medical care.
As a result of one warrant, a 16-year-old male was arrested and charged in relation to possession of quantities of heroin and cocaine. He will be reported to the Youth Justice Management Unit for consideration.
Outreach work comprised of over 60 visits to individuals to offer the support of services designed to keep them safer and reduce the risk of drug related deaths.
In Banff and Fraserburgh, the police mobile office was staffed by representatives from all partners involved and saw over 100 interactions from members of the public and the distribution of over 200 pieces of promotion and support service literature and the distribution of Naloxone by Community psychiatric nurses. Two people who engaged were in crisis and were integrated into service immediately and provided with substance misuse support.
Vanessa Case, Team Manager North Aberdeenshire Drug and Alcohol Service, said: “This is a welcome opportunity to bring our teams, which comprise Clinical staff and Social Work staff, together with our partners, in to a targeted and focused operation to reach those who we know to be most at risk.
“Some individuals reach a point where they lose choice about what they can do to change their lives and are unable to take themselves out of the harmful situation. This is when outreach, in the targeted form which these Days of Action represents, becomes the most effective way to reach individuals most at risk.
“At the same time, we are encouraging communities, through visibility and engagement, to contribute directly in the partnership response to the impact of serious organised crime on individuals and families who are our communities”.
Superintendent Murray Main, from Partnerships, Preventions & Interventions for North East Division of Police Scotland, said: “Effective primary prevention acknowledges the prevalence and impact caused by drugs, addiction and associated criminality, risk and harm. This partnership operation balances the need for enforcement with a focus on reducing risk factors and strengthening the protective factors that are most closely related to challenges these individuals, their families and local communities face.
“This approach, in my opinion, helps practitioners provide appropriate advice, intervention and treatment through often complex interventions. It helps shift the focus ‘upstream’ by helping individuals avoid, reduce or modify drug use rather than accepting inevitable delays in the provision of support until further ‘downstream’ when the problem requires enforcement and often an emergency response.”
