It is just after 9pm, but already more than 200 people have made their way into an Aberdeen city centre bar by the time police arrive to check-in with the doorman Andrew Watts.
But he is sure none of them will cause any trouble.
“They’re all oil workers, they’re well behaved,” he said.
The most trouble he has had so far is someone walking out on a £40 bill.
And Constable Dan Gabrielli is hopeful it is a sign of things to come – a trouble free Friday night shift, in the middle of the holidays.
“We’ve not got the usual footfall of students and Friday nights are never as busy as Saturdays.”
As well as that the rain may cause a number of revellers to stay at home.
Police have stepped up patrols in nightspots across the north-east after figures released earlier this month showed a surge in violent crime.
Between April and July 34 people were victims of serious assault in the south of the city.
After speaking to the doormen at Revolution, the officers make their way up Belmont Street before deciding to go through Union Terrace Gardens – where a woman was raped in January this year.
Constable Gabrielli said the area is one frequently visited by the police.
He said: “We’re in here all the time.
“It’s rare for us to be on a night shift and not come in here.
“The lay-out of it provides difficulty for us, they’ve installed lighting but some of the lights go out and it gets dimmer over time.”
During our patrol, through the sunken gardens we come across a group of men standing below the archway.
They do not appear to be causing any trouble but the two officers make contact and ask them what their plans are for the evening, before moving on.
After a walk round Adelphi and up Shiprow, the team head back to the station for the evening briefing.
Afterwards, we head out in the van and the team are alerted to the presence of a very drunk man at Upper Kirkgate and are concerned he may be vulnerable to attack.
The van drives through Schoolhill and spots him near Triple Kirks.
Officers get out of the van to speak to him – he’s not at all aggressive and is happy to talk to the police.
He lives 30 miles from Aberdeen so there’s no chance of being given a lift but he’s taken to the nearby taxi rank on Back Wynd and a driver agrees to take him home.
Sergeant Murray King said: “It’s rare to see people charged with excessive drunkenness nowadays.
“If there’s someone at home then we tend to get them home, if there’s nobody they could be taken to hospital but there would likely have to be something wrong with them beyond drunkenness to go there.
“The worst case scenario is they’ll be taken into custody and left to sober up and released the next day.”
City centre patrols: Who does what?
During the evening briefing, officers were split into teams and given one of 10 city centre wards to patrol.
Inspector Andy Barclay, who is normally based in Northfield but takes charge of weekend policing once every five weeks, said the focus over the past weekend was Operation Pine – an exercise that tackles violent crime.
He said: “As part of the weekend patrols we’re focusing on Operation Pine which is a current initiative running to maximise intelligence, enforcement and prevention within the city centre.
“How we’ll do that is we’ll deploy officers in the right areas to target the right people at the right time.
“We know that a majority of those out in Aberdeen city centre this weekend are not out to cause trouble.
“When we see extreme behaviour such as shouting or excessive drunkenness we will intervene.”
As his officers were out on patrol, Insp Barclay and his team at Queen Street were monitoring CCTV and sending units to deal with any problems that arose.
