ONE of Bute and Cowal’s leading police officers has moved to assure community figures that they are not living in a “Wild West” area after a large number of assaults were reported.
The document, produced ahead of a meeting, said that police had recorded 100 assaults in the administrative area in little over three months.
But Chief Inspector James McArthur told the meeting that the number was down to the way incidents were recorded, with some incidents resulting in more than one complaint.
The meeting of Argyll and Bute Council’s Bute and Cowal community planning group took place on Tuesday, November 4.
Chief Inspector McArthur said: “Previously, what we would have is a roll-up, which is a police term for when we have multiple offences attributed to one offender, or when you have five or six incidents in the one crime.
“So for example, if you had five cars broken into, you would have one report with five complainers.
“When recording standards changed for Scotland, it became the case that every victim of crime is a stand-alone crime report.
“That makes sense in some respects, but it skews the figures when you have numerous complainers for one incident. Three of our main offenders are responsible for almost 30 per cent of the incidents reported.
“In one case, most of the incidents occurred between 2022 and 2024. It might not be similar with another offender but what is a good thing is that we are collating them correctly. The same could happen with historic offences which will collate into our figures.
“Because of the way we are recording things now, we are getting an increase in the figures.
“The assaults are not random attacks on members of the public, and it is quite important that we get that across.
“We are not living in a Wild West town. A lot of these are by people known to each other and are in a domestic or neighbour dispute setting.”
Chief Inspector McArthur later advised the Local Democracy Reporting Service that 85 per cent of common assault crimes were committed by people known to the victim, with almost half being domestic related.
Fifteen per cent resulted from assaults committed by strangers to the victim, with most occurring within or outside a licenced premises.
