A new police report has shown that incidents of common assault in Aberdeen city centre have almost halved in the last five years, but shoplifting has risen dramatically during the same period.
The paper, to be presented next week to councillors on the communities, housing and infrastructure committee, confirmed that whereas 1455 assaults were reported in the year 2011/12, this fell to just 739 for 2015/16.
Serious assaults also dropped, but not so steeply with 62 reported in 11/12 and 54 this year.
Police found that 84% of common assault perpetrators were under the influence of alcohol when caught this year, while the figure was 91.2% for serious assault.
Meanwhile, cases of shoplifting have rocketed from 832 in 11/12 to 1118 this year.
The report stated: “Preventing and reducing violent crime within the city centre is an absolute priority and where such crimes do occur, specific and robust processes are in place to ensure that thorough investigations are instigated to bring offenders to justice.
“Work in this area is constantly evolving and, over the period of the last six months, it has been established a significant proportion (approximately 10%) of persons involved in violent offending in the city centre are visitors to Aberdeen.
“Clothing and cosmetics are the most popular identified items stolen, though thefts of alcohol show significant increase in recent years. Against the five-year average, the 2015/16 increase is 91.4%.”
Infrastructure convener Neil Cooney said the drop in assaults would boost the city’s reputation as a visitor destination after being a “no-go” zone previously.
He said: “What’s clear is that Union Street is a much safer place than it used to be.
“There was a real problem at night and parts were practically no-go zones.
“But we have been very proactive in working with partners in other agencies and things have been turned around with more patrols.
“When it comes to shoplifting, this is a trend all across Scotland where we see organised gangs sometimes stealing to order or others stealing things to sell in pubs to feed their habits.
“It’s important to remember that shoplifting isn’t a victimless crime, it’s the honest shopper who pays with an increase in prices.”
City centre councillor Bill Cormie added: “It’s great to see these numbers coming down after the reputation it used to have.”
