Lothians and Borders Police Column - DI Laura White

As the Detective Inspector covering the Borders, I am grateful to Chief Inspector Fisher for allowing me to take over his column to give an overview on some of the work we have undertaken in the region, as well as giving an overview of some of the issues we continue to see impacting upon our communities.

We have been busy over the past couple of months gathering intelligence in relation to drug activity within the Borders and this has led to some positive enforcement action.

Through continued assistance from our communities, we have been able to apply for warrants and target those who are bringing misery and violence to our communities and families.

Proactive CID officers have dismantled million pound cultivations, seized kilos of class A and B drugs, taken money from these groups, arresting individuals disrupting their activity and dismantling their structures. We work closely with our partners to support those caught up in and vulnerable through their own drug misuse or as tools to remove those responsible from our communities.

We continue to see reports of members of the public being contacted by individuals claiming to be working for a banking institution and alerting the caller to fraudulent activity on their accounts.

Some incidents involve simply transferring cash to accounts controlled by suspects, some request monies to be removed from accounts and posted to PO box addresses or physically passed to a suspect under the guise of an undercover police operation.

Neither your bank, nor officers from Police Scotland, will contact you under these circumstances and we would encourage you to continue to report any suspicious activity to us so we can investigate.

Given our geography, the Scottish Borders has strong links with neighbouring divisions and bordering English forces. These relationships come into their own when we are subject to thefts and break-ins within our more rural areas.

We are linked in across the service through our partnerships, preventions and community wellbeing division and share intelligence and crime trends to assist in crime investigation.

We are aware those in rural communities support each other and have firm communication networks and are grateful for your continued support as we pull information together to build evidence up against those responsible.

Events through the summer has seen an increase in high performance push bikes, quad bikes and targeting of e-bikes from garages or from vehicles parked up. Quick reporting to police has allowed us to capture sufficient evidence to identify those responsible. We ask that with that everyone continues to be mindful of property security and ensures that all valuables are marked up.

Travelling criminals have been operating within the Borders over the summer months and have been offering gardening, roofing repairs or housing maintenance. We are pleased with engagement from our communities in reporting this activity and have successfully arrested a number of suspects for these crimes.

We continue to work alongside Trading Standards Scotland to share information and seek opportunities for joint working where we can share our expertise and protect the elderly and vulnerable who live alongside.

If you would like any information about protecting yourself against bogus workmen, thefts and rural crime, as well as other really useful personal safety advice, please visit our website at www.scotland.police.uk.