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Professor John Robertson OBA
BBC Scotland has today has the above, and:
Money raised from seized criminal assets should be directly reinvested in efforts to fight organised crime, a police watchdog has said. In an annual report, HMICS said the Scottish government should consider an “asset recovery incentivisation scheme” that would allow Police Scotland – and other agencies – to use money raised from criminals’ assets to combat crime. A similar scheme is already in operation across the rest of the UK.
Keep those ‘other agencies’ in mind as we see what the Scottish Government already does and which BBC Scotland would rather you don’t know as they selectively remind you of what happens elsewhere in the UK:
Projects supporting young people at risk of being drawn into criminal activities are to receive up to £26 million over the next three years. The Scottish Government’s CashBack for Communities programme uses money recovered from seized criminal assets to provide crucial support to young people who may be at risk of becoming involved in offending or antisocial behaviour.
Successful projects in the programme’s next stage (2026-2029) will deliver a range of activities and support for those aged 10 to 25, to help tackle some of the underlying causes of antisocial behaviour and criminal activity. Projects will also provide access to trusted adults who young people can confide in. Since 2008 CashBack for Communities has invested £156 million and supported around 1.4 million young people across all 32 local authorities in Scotland.
https://www.gov.scot/news/26-million-cashback-for-communities/
I’m with the prevention approach.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
The BBC Scotland piece is directly lifted from HMICS report, most probably from the X tweet. It is lazy journalism based on the BBC Scotland ‘hostile to Scotland and anything Scottish’ policy. It is also in keeping with the purpose of journalism of instilling fear in the population as was the aim of Lord Rothermere, founder of the Daily Mail.
Despite HMICS supposed to be an independent body it is acting here as an advocate for greater investment in police services. It is acting as if it were the Police Federation. It has a vested interest.
It was Strathclyde Police which formed the Violence Reduction Unit to apply a different paradigm to dealing with crime. It was adopted by Police Scotland when Scotland’s police forces were merged. It seeks to move people away from crime by offering other options. It is based on a mental health paradigm about engaging with people to enable them to change.
This approach has been successful over a number of years and violence in Scotland has been reduced. Despite wars, crime and violence in society has been reducing in many parts of the world. There is still violent behaviours being displayed particularly against women and children, gays, trans people, people of colour. It is unacceptable. ‘Traditional’ policing has its place in this, but crime prevention approaches must be supported and increased.
This, of course, is contrary to Reform’s “Lawless Britain” campaign.
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