Undercover police officers have been patrolling a city-centre park where two sex attacks took place within weeks of each other.
The plain clothes patrols are part of a series of measures aimed at restoring public confidence in safety at Aberdeen’s iconic Union Terrace Gardens.
CCTV has also been installed and extra patrols by uniformed officers and city wardens have been carried out.
Chief Inspector Graeme Mackie said last night he hoped the moves would “bring confidence back to the area” and deter criminals from using the park as a haunt.
Last month, a man was charged with sexual assault following an incident in Union Terrace Gardens.
And just weeks earlier a young woman was raped in the park.
The culprit is still at large.
Chief Inspector Mackie said: “If you look at Union Terrace Gardens itself in terms of crime, it is a low number of crimes in that area.
“However, this year we have seen two serious crimes which will have had an impact on the public’s perception of the gardens and people’s confidence of going into the gardens.
“Our job is to keep people safe and to reassure people, it is to ensure any criminal behaviour is stopped within Union Terrace Gardens.”
Twenty-four hour CCTV has recently been installed providing live footage monitored by police officers based in Queen Street.
Chief Insp Mackie said the cameras would also allow police to monitor lower level crime, and act as a deterrent to criminal activity.
He also said that police patrols in the city centre had been increased for a number of months and that plain clothed officers had been working in the area.
“That’s a tactic we may deploy on a week-to-week basis but there will always be high visibility patrols in that area, as people will see in the city centre every day of the week,” he said.
“All these measure I hope will reassure the public that we recognise their fears and we are taking steps to address them so that people can still enjoy the gardens.”
Aberdeen City Council, police, both universities and licensees have joined forces to discuss plans for the park.
City council leader Jenny Laing has stressed that Union Terrace Gardens is “actually a safe place” and said locking the gates at night – which has already been suggested – would send out the wrong message.
She added: “Aberdeen City Centre is a very safe place. We wouldn’t have got the Purple Flag accreditation if that wasn’t the case. We’ve had it for three years.”
Rosemount councillor Bill Cormie welcomed any measures to reduce crime in the gardens.
But he said the simplest solution would be to lock the gates at night.
A 21-year-old woman was raped in the park between 3am-3.30am on January 28.
CCTV footage released by police shows someone walking along Lower Denburn around the time of the incident, moving away from the park.
A major investigation is being led by specially-trained officers supported by local teams.
Earlier this month police launched an investigation into claims a woman had been sexually assaulted at Union Terrace Gardens.
A 26-year-old man was detained and had been due to appear at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
He was later released although the Crown Office said the case against him remained live.
The Gardens could look very different…
Union Terrace Gardens could have looked very different today had Sir Ian Wood’s £50million offer of investment been accepted by the city council.
The oil industry tycoon’s vision for the site divided the public and local politicians when it was first mooted nearly a decade ago.
It involved raising the gardens to street level and creating a civic square.
But despite initial backing from the SNP-led council, the £140million City Garden Project was ultimately rejected amid a storm of controversy.
A public consultation was held in April 2010 which revealed 55% of almost 12,000 people who expressed an opinion did not support the proposal.
Later that year, councillors moved ahead with the scheme and, the following year, even commissioned an international design competition for the project.
In January 2012, Granite Web was chosen as the preferred design, which was backed by the public in a referendum held in March of that year.
But the park would become a political battleground in the city after the SNP administration were voted out of power.
At the May 2012 local government elections, Labour – who had vowed to scrap the plans if elected – became the largest party on the council.
A vote on whether to reject the scheme would be held later that year, which the Labour-led administration won 22-20.
However, Sir Ian said his offer to invest £50million of his own money in the City Garden Project would remain on the table for a year, a deadline he would extend twice before it was rescinded in December 2013.
In the years since, there has continued to be debate over the future of the park.
In June, a fresh row erupted after graphic images emerged of drug-users injecting themselves in a makeshift campsite.
Dozens of burnt spoons, syringes, and drink bottles were discovered discarded at the site.
Long-term proposals for the gardens have been unveiled as part of the city centre masterplan, including a new amphitheatre and a bridge linking it to Belmont Street.
