​Six months of planning ensures street party is a success - Emma Croft

I had the privilege of working as Silver Commander for the policing operation in support of the Capital’s Hogmanay Street Party. This was the 30th anniversary of the iconic event, which puts the city in the international spotlight, with tens of thousands of people from all over the world coming to celebrate New Year on Princes Street.

Superintendent Emma Croft

There was also the return of the Torchlight Procession, which saw thousands of people make their way through the city centre carrying torches to ‘shine a light on homelessness’ while helping to raise over £50,000 for Social Bite projects in Edinburgh and across Scotland.

Despite the Scottish December weather, the procession was well-attended and police helped ensure the safety of all those who took part in flooding our Old Town with a river of fire.

I am really pleased to say that the Street Party was on overwhelming success and passed peacefully, with only one arrest made for a relatively minor incident. My thanks go to all the key partners involved.

Operations like this don’t achieve success by accident. The Hogmanay Street Party is a significant event in the Police Scotland calendar and requires significant resource from across our cadre of divisional and specialist officers.

We’ve got 30-years of experiencing in policing the Street Party and in that time we have learned many lessons. We also know that the policing style we adopt must be reflective of this unique celebration.

Planning for such an event takes place months in advance and it was in the summer of 2023 that we held initial talks with City of Edinburgh Council and the event organisers, Unique Assembly, about what the Street Party would look like and what sort of police response was required to maintain public safety, deter criminality and respond appropriately and proportionately to any incidents that arise.

During December we also tested and exercised our response plans for all eventualities and I was really happy with the professional and dedication . This was replicated during the evening of 31 December and undoubtedly contributed to the success of the event as a whole.

Like every year, there will now be a debrief process to review the operation – before we know it, we’ll be back round the table discussing what the event for Hogmanay 2024 will look like.

If you were one of the attendees at the Hogmanay Street Party 2023, I hope you had a wonderful time and left with a positive experience, not only of Edinburgh, but of Police Scotland and our emergency service colleagues, who were keen to ensure your start to 2024 was memorable for all the right reasons.

Rest assured, whenever there is a major event occurring within the city, we will work closely alongside the event organisers and other agencies to keep you safe.

Superintendent Emma Croft