Assault numbers down

THE NUMBER of common assaults and breach of the peace offences in Shetland are at their lowest in five years.

Chief inspector Lindsay Tulloch told Wednesday’s meeting of Shetland’s community safety and resilience board that this was partly due to a greater police presence at licensed premises and on Lerwick’s Commercial Street at weekends.

Figures presented to the board showed that there have been 31 occurrences of common assault since April – a reduction of nearly a half from the same period last year.

There have also been 22 breach of the peace/threatening or abusive behaviour crimes since April, a drop of 31 per cent from last year.

Tulloch said the decreases were “quite significant”.

The police chief also suggested that the force is keen to see more stringent measures in place in relation to vehicles driving along Lerwick’s Commercial Street when they are not supposed to during the day.

He said on one day this summer there were 7,000 pedestrians in Lerwick as cruise ship passengers visited the town.

“It’s time to look at Commercial Street again,” Tulloch said, with the council’s roads department said to be involved in discussions.