By Professor John Robertson
From the Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Data Report : July 2024 edition, today:
Crime has fallen by 53% since 2008-09. Results from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) show that around 1 in 10 adults were victims of crime in 2021-22 (10.0%) compared to 1 in 5 in 2008-09 (20.4%). The estimated number of crimes fell by 53% over the same period, and by 18% since 2017-18.
IMPORTANT – This is not based on police reporting which is known to understate the actual level of crime but on The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS), a large-scale (5 500 interviews) social survey which asks people about their experiences and perceptions of crime in Scotland and is considered ‘gold standard’ research methodology ie very accurate.
In crude terms, you’re half as likely to be victim of crime than you were 17 years ago. How’s that for real news utterly unacceptable for our MSM’s agenda?
Despite this massive fall, there are actually slightly more police officers, as of March 2024, than there were, 17 years ago, at the end of the last Labour Government in March 2007:
From Police Scotland data, 7 May 2024:
Scotland’s Chief Statistician has published statistics on Police Officer Quarterly Strength, which gives the number of full-time equivalent police officers employed by Police Scotland.
The key findings of the statistics are:
- there were 16,356 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in Scotland on 31 March 2024
- this is an increase of 122 FTE police officers (+0.7%) from the 16,234 FTE police officers recorded at 31 March 2007 https://www.gov.scot/publications/police-officer-quarterly-strength-statistics-31-march-2024/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Ah, but the media will get a few vox pops of people claiming, ‘this is just to tip of an iceberg, because most people don’t report crimes since the polis don’t dae anythin’.
More seriously, at our monthly community council meeting the Police provide data on the number of reported crimes in our area and neighbouring ones. For years it has been steady at around 20 incidents per month and almost all of these are relatively minor like breach of the peace and vandalism. Housebreakings usually coincide with the release from prison of persistent offenders. Assaults are usually in a domestic context. There are about 6 thefts of bikes per year and two of cars, with the latter usually recovered. So, public safety is not an issue. People are not walking about in fear and trepidation. However, a very snobbish right wing journalist who has lived in the area for two decades and is a regular rent-a-quote for radio and TV has described living in our area as ‘absolutely lethal’ (sic).
Alasdair Macdonald
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”lethal” could possibly be arranged but I couldn’t possibly comment
ATP
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