REPEAT VIOLENT OFFENDERS in Moray are facing a major clampdown as police officers chase up outstanding warrants throughout the region.
Police have said that they are to launch a major operation throughout Aberdeenshire and Moray aimed at eliminating fighting and assaults ahead of the forthcoming Festive season.
Their aim is the prevention of such crimes through the re-launch of ‘Operation Sandside’ which will seek to remove the threat of assaults in town centres and households, with the chief inspector leading the violent crime unit pledging a major effort from his officers.
Chief Inspector Richard Craig said: “My push has got to focus on preventing violent crime – within the division we are very good at detecting it in terms of where violent crimes take place.
“We will continue to do that but we need to be smarter at actually preventing violent crime and the causes of such crime. Alcohol is a key contributor whether that is common assaults, domestic assaults or assaults in open space in the streets or licensed premises.
“Alcohol is the key golden thread that runs through all of those instances of violence, our approach is very much one of prevention in dealing with the root causes.”
The violence reduction unit has officers based in Elgin and their job will be to patrol streets, pubs and clubs in the region. Shifts have been rearranged to allow more policing to take place in the evenings and weekends when violence is most likely to happen.
“Our approach for this weekend and future weekends will be one of targeting town centres in a high visibility approach and engaging with licencees.”