Shetland police winning war on drugs

POLICE in Shetland have seized heroin, cannabis and legal highs worth £100,000 since April this year, according to area commander Lindsay Tulloch.

The acting chief inspector was presenting the latest crime detection statistics to a meeting of the community safety and resilience board on Thursday afternoon.

Tulloch said the fight against illegal drugs was high on his agenda, reflected in police officers with sniffer dogs attending the arrival of the overnight ferry from Aberdeen almost every morning.

He said the high profile fight against drugs had also resulted in an increased number of people sharing information with police about the illegal drugs trade.

He paid tribute to the Dogs Against Drugs charity whose dog handlers were also out with police most weekends patrolling bars and pubs and “being seen in the community”.

Tulloch added: “We are also trying to get officers out and about, so that everybody in the community gets the benefit of the police being about.”

He said that his force was currently involved in a campaign to reduce the number of motoring offences, such as using a mobile phone while driving or not wearing seat belts.

He and chief superintendent Julian Innes, who also attended the meeting, assured councillor Allison Duncan that officers would make tackling speeding offences a “priority in this area”.

The councillor who has been campaigning for speed cameras to be installed at accident hotspots for many years said he had anecdotally heard of a motorcyclist who had been clocked doing 135 miles per hour on a local road.

The chief superintendent also confirmed that all 37.6 full time equivalent jobs at the local police were now filled, and that it was likely that by the end of the year this number was going to rise to nearer 40.

Following a recruitment campaign earlier this year, Police Scotland had also managed to recruit three new local officers, who were all given the opportunity to start their career in Shetland.