Corovavirus remains a risk, even as lockdown eases – Chief Supt Sean Scott

With Scotland now well into the second phase of easing lockdown restrictions, I want to once again thank our communities for their continued support of the measures aimed at reducing the spread of Covid-19, protecting the NHS and saving lives.

While guidance remains to stay at home, the public are now permitted to engage in more outdoor activities, as well as visiting people from other households in outdoor settings such as gardens and parks. Physical distancing, however, must still be adhered to in order to assist in preventing a rise in the infection rate.

Direction from the Scottish Government is to avoid any public gatherings, including protests and demonstrations, instead utilising online platforms to show your support.

The events that took place in Edinburgh over the past couple of weeks have, in the main been peacefully observed, with very little police intervention. For this, we are extremely grateful.

Nonetheless, whenever we have intelligence that such gatherings are going to happen, we will deploy appropriate resources to safeguard the public and minimise disruption to the rest of the Capital.

However, coronavirus remains a very real risk to public health and we cannot sanction public demonstrations at this time.

With the recent fair weather and the increase in those returning to work over the past couple of weeks, we are observing an increase in traffic on Edinburgh’s roads, which includes cyclists and motorcyclists.

We have more Operation Closepass activity planned in the coming weeks and months, to highlight to drivers the need to ensure appropriate distance when passing cyclists. Our efforts to improve road safety for cyclists has been further supported by the creation of additional cycle lanes across the city.

Cyclists must also be aware of their responsibilities and we have been utilising our social media channels to provide safe cycling advice, particularly to those who are new to cycling on busy roads.

Our fourth quarter Management Information data was issued in the past few weeks and showed some significant drops in crimes such as domestic housebreaking, vehicle crime and serious assaults. While incredibly positive, we are watching these trends closely, especially as more lockdown restrictions are eased.

Normally at this time, I would be looking forward to our Summer City operation, which is our policing response to the Edinburgh International Festival. However, with this major event now cancelled for 2020, we will be re-evaluating what resources are required within the city centre over the summer months.

We anticipate a decline in the number of tourists and visitors within Edinburgh, but that does not mean there will not be areas of high demand and our planning will take cognisance of this.

Thank you all once again for your overwhelmingly positive compliance to physical distancing and I hope by my next column we will be further forward to a new normality.

Chief Superintendent Sean Scott is the Divisional Commander for Edinburgh