New police chief delighted to be back
SHETLAND’S new police area commander Angus MacInnes has said he is delighted to be back in the islands to run the local police force for the next three to five years.
Chief inspector MacInnes has bought a house and moved up to the islands with his wife and started work at Lerwick police station this week, having left Easter Ross where he was inspector for Caithness.
The Inverness-born 42 year old was brought up in Toronto, Canada, and his soft voice still bears a Canadian twang, despite having spent his adult life back in Scotland.
In 2009 he spent five months as inspector in Lerwick working under chief inspector Malcolm Bell, who was going through a period of ill health at the time prior to his early retirement.
This week he replaces David Bushell, who has moved to the west coast of Scotland to become area commander of Lochaber, Skye and Lochalsh.
Speaking on Thursday, chief inspector MacInnes said he had thoroughly enjoyed his time in Shetland two years ago, so much so that he had applied for the northernmost top job in the Northern Constabulary.
His tenure will be during the time the Scottish government starts to implement its plans for a single police authority in Scotland, something which Mr MacInnes is ready for.
“Why can’t we participate in the national debate about policing? There are things that we can learn from elsewhere, and things they can learn from us, such as our record on community policing,” he said.
Listening to the community and understanding its needs is the strong point of the local force, he believes, leading to low crime and high clear up figures.
And it should not be taken for granted, he insisted. This summer he returned to Toronto for a holiday where he witnessed Canadian style policing “where you almost feel as if policing is being imposed upon you”.
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Canada is facing worse public sector funding cuts than Scotland, it seems. The Toronto force is being asked to save $110 million this year alone, more than the entire budget for Northern Constabulary.
In Shetland, where he will be in charge of 30 officers and 14 civilian staff, he intends to get to know his new patch before making any decisions on changes that need to be made.
“I will be tuning in to the place and obviously looking at the staff within Shetland, whether we have the right people in the right place doing the right things,” he said.
Priorities remain drugs, drink and also domestic violence, which is often fuelled by the former two.
But working in Shetland will be a challenge he is looking forward to. “The challenge we all face is the remoteness up here, but that makes it more interesting and it means that you have to get along with everyone else because as a community we have to be able to look after ourselves.”
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