Cops in Scotland have created an innovative new crime fighting technique, which doesn’t even require them to turn up to the scene; they’ve begun parking empty police cars in crime hotspots in the hope it will deter criminals.
According to the Evening Telegraph, a marked Vauxhall Zafira police car appeared at close to midnight on Monday and remained parked on double yellow lines on Dens Road, near Dundee city centre for until 8:30pm the following day.
Writers at Evening Telegraph phoned cops to ask why the car had been seemingly abandoned, and were told by police that the vehicle had been left there in aid of crime prevention. Police later appeared in another marked car and an officer removed the Zafira.
A spokeswoman for Police Scotland, Tayside Division, commented: “Police Scotland continues to provide a visible presence in the communities of Tayside, whether officers are on patrol or by the use of marked police vehicles, in order to deter, disrupt and detect criminality and keep people safe.”
City councillor Kevin Keenan, who sits on Dundee’s Policy and Resources Committee, said: “I think there’s no substitute for people seeing the police walking along the streets — that’s what the general public wants to see. I suppose it’s still good to have a visible police presence and I think it could work for an hour or so, but when it’s parked as long as almost 24 hours, then people will think it’s either broken down, or it’s just been dumped there. It’s certainly not perfect and it’s seems a strange tactic to use and I’d like to find out the full explanation for its use.
“Perhaps there’s a surplus of police cars and I did hear the number of officers leaving the force had risen, so maybe there’s a shortage of staff?”
Have you seen any abandoned police cars in your area? Let us know in the comments below.
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