Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Fall in crime during festive season

Post Thumbnail

A crackdown on crime in Aberdeen over Christmas and the New Year is being heralded as a success by police.

The drive was launched in October as part of the longstanding Operation Oak, in an effort to promote safety and target offenders.

Recently released figures show a drop in violence, vandalism and anti-social behaviour throughout the festive period.

Violent crime is at a five-year low, while vandalism fell by almost 50%, with the number of recorded incidents dropping from 40 in 2013 to 21 in 2014.

Incidents of breach of the peace more than halved in the same period, from 114 to 61.

And the number of reported thefts, including mobile phones, fell by just over 20%.

Chief Superintendent Adrian Watson, commander for Aberdeen Division, said the results were “extremely positive” for the area.

He said: “Aberdeen is a safe place to live and I would like to thank the hundreds of thousands of people who came into the city, in the region of 40,000 additional people every day, to celebrate the festive season in a safe and responsible manner.

“Operation Oak has been highly successful over the years and was an award finalist in the recent National Policing awards in the tackling crime category.

“The city has also had recognition by becoming the first city in Scotland to be awarded the purple flag accreditation which recognises a safe night-time economy.

“We are committed to keeping people safe and we continue to work with our partners and thank them for their support. The results year on year have been extremely impressive and to maintain and indeed improve on this is quite an achievement by all involved.”

Mr Watson said much of the credit had to go to the partner agencies involved in the scheme, particularly the street pastors, Aberdeen City Council and the business community.

“It is also important to recognise the commitment and professionalism of my own police officers and police staff who work hard all year long to ensure that Aberdeen city centre is a safe environment for people to live in and to visit,” he added.

Police worked with more than 70 partner agencies during the campaign, which lasted five weeks.