Highland police festive safety campaign launched with top priorities outlined
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A long running initiative is to return encouraging people to enjoy the festive period safely in the Highland capital.
Operation Respect is the long-running initiative aimed at ensuring the safety of vulnerable people and tackling issues such as the safety of lone females, antisocial behaviour, shop crime, substance misuse and other associated crimes.
Police Scotland is supported in this by various partners including Inverness BID, Highland Council, the British Red Cross and Inverness Street Pastors.
Throughout the month there will be high visibility patrols in the city centre in the daytime which will be supplemented by the provision of a mobile police office during peak times during the evenings to provide reassurance and a point of contact to shoppers and revellers.
Inspector Brian Bisset, of the Inverness Community Policing Team, said: "We are delighted to continue our work with key partners to ensure that Inverness and the wider region offers a safe and welcoming environment over the festive period.
"Our key priorities during this time will be keeping people safe by enhancing our presence with both a static point of contact, in addition to our traditional foot patrolling, where we will continue to provide a safe environment, prevent and reduce violent crime, anti-social behaviour and retail crime.
“We will provide highly visible patrols in Inverness city centre throughout the period with partners to ensure the area is a safe place to visit, shop and celebrate.
"As well as the resources we have in place with our partners, we need the support of the public who can help keep themselves and others safe by taking responsibility for their own actions and looking out for their friends.
"The overwhelming majority of people simply want to go out, enjoy themselves and get home safely at the end of the night. From a policing perspective be rest assured we will be doing everything we can to ensure the minority does not spoil it for others."
