The City of Edinburgh Council say that during the annual ‘Operation Astrodome’ crimes such as alcohol related violence, breaches of the peace, shopliftings, vandalisms and minor assaults dropped by 17% compared to last year and 21% compared to the last three years.
Most notably, the number of indecent assaults decreased dramatically from 8 last year to 1 this year.
The success of the operation was due to extra initiatives organised by the City of Edinburgh Council , Edinburgh Community Safety Partnership, Lothian and Borders Police and the British Transport Police.
During the pilot many different schemes took place including a ‘Rapid Response’ unit, which ran over three days during the busy Christmas party season. The unit, with one paramedic, two environmental wardens and a licensing standards officer, helped in preventing crime and responding directly to incidents.
At night, there was also joint patrols of environmental wardens and police officers around the city centre, with Transport marshals and police patrolling key taxi ranks.
Councillor Paul Edie, Chair of Community Safety Partnership, said: “Once again, this worthwhile initiative has had a positive impact on the crime rate during the festive season. Crime prevention is a key aim of our Council and it is good to see the highly visible presence of Police, Community Safety Officers and Environmental Wardens on the street dealing with and preventing a great number of antisocial and alcohol related offences. I’d like to give a big ‘thanks’ to all the staff who worked over the period to ensure everyone was able to enjoy Edinburgh during the festivities.”
