‘Violence, not dog fouling’ will be single police force’s priority

• Superintendents propose allowing external agencies to perform non-essential police work

• Conference wants to emphasise violence and crime reduction, not cost reduction

• Government says violence reduction will be ‘key priority’

They want other areas, such as litter and escorting large vehicles, passed to other agencies to allow officers to prioritise crime.

The Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (Asps) is calling for greater information sharing with NHS Scotland and, in particular accident and emergency wards, to draw up a map of violence across the country.

Chief superintendent David O’Connor, president of Asps, believes more early intervention is needed to stop problems spreading to the next generation.

The Violence Reduction Unit, which originated in Strathclyde but now works on a Scotland-wide basis, will come in for praise at the conference.

But Mr O’Connor believes it is important to build on the unit’s work and has warned about focusing too much on cost-cutting.

“We have to stop talking about cost reduction,” he said. “The key thing for us is how do we build on violence reduction and crime reduction.

“We’ve got the Violence Reduction Unit, the No Knives Better Lives campaign, we need to look at how initiatives such as these operate in a single service.

“It’s not just enforcement, it’s about changing attitudes through early intervention.

“We also need to get the national health service involved to a greater extent, exchanging information so we’ve got a more accurate picture of the true extent of the problem.”

The Violence Reduction Unit challenged territorial gang behaviour in deprived communities, with positive effects.

The unit achieved a 46.5 per cent reduction in violence involving the youngsters they worked with, and an 85 per cent reduction in weapon carrying, in the two years after its launch in October 2008.

Mr O’Connor admitted some elements of police work may have to be squeezed in future, with dwindling resources and a focus on violence reduction.

He called for local authority partners to take on some roles, and for privatisation of others.

“I think violent crime is going to be a priority and at the lesser end of the scale you have dogs fouling, litter, wide load escorts.

“These are all things the public like us to deal with and they have come to expect that but, while it would be nice to think we could do all these things, in reality, we are going to have to look at them.”

The Scottish Government said violence reduction would be a “key priority” for the new national force, which is set to come into being in April next year.