After gaining invaluable experience from 25 years serving in the police force chief inspector Tom Leonard was appointed as the new Local Area Commander for Perth and Kinross.
And the former Dundee detective revealed that the nature of policing in the region and the rest of Scotland is changing.
CI Leonard’s police career started in Pitlochry in 1997 where he served the community as an officer.
In 1999, after completing his probation, he moved to the division in Dundee where he worked on a number of different community response police teams.
CI Leonard then moved on to the CID (Criminal Investigation Department) as a detective constable and a detective sergeant in intelligence for a number of years before being promoted to inspector.
In 2019 he was promoted to detective chief inspector where his role was to oversee a number of the police’s public protection units in and around Dundee.
This included taking charge of the sex offending policing unit, the divisional rape investigation unit and the domestic abuse unit, as well as the non-recent sexual crime team which addresses reported crimes that took place several years prior.
CI Leonard believes his experience of the region, as well as his five years as a beat cop and 20 years in detective roles, can make a difference in helping tackling issues blighting Perth and Kinross.
He said: “During my career I have always had connections in Perth and Kinross.
“That is the thing with Tayside as an area, it has a mix of rural and urban areas each which bring their own challenges.
“It gives you a broader understanding and experience of what the communities needs are so it is a good division to work in.
“There has been a lot of positive work done over a number of years in the area.
“The victims and perpetrators of crimes often have complex needs so policing can’t solve these problems on their own - we have to work with partners.
“It is something in my time here I have already seen Perth and Kinross do really well.
“It is something my predecessor Graham Binnie had a real drive for.
“I would also like to say thank you to Graham for all the work he has done and I wish him all the very best in his new role.
“He will be working in the division as a temporary superintendent in our preventions, interventions and partnerships unit now.”
CI Leonard revealed the nature of policing is changing with a huge rise in the number of cyber crimes taking place, including fraud, which many older Perth and Kinross residents have fallen victim to.
“You can see that crime is moving very much away from the traditional crime that occurs in the public space,” he said.
“We are seeing a big increase in things like cyber crime with fraud, which is moving into a cyber-enabled environment, or using IT to commit offences which would have been committed in open spaces.
“So policing is changing and what you will see is not less visibility but what needs to be recognised is that there will be a commitment to specialist policing which is office based with support from national units.
“Policing is changing and throughout my 25 years the one constant is change.
“We are recruiting people now with a raft of cyber skills.
“As offenders change to fit their M.O (modus operandi), policing changes to match that.”
Through CI Leonard’s time in the force he has experienced a rise in reports of crimes that took place a number of years ago, driven by police analysis and similar high profile cases that have played out in the public eye in recent times.
He said: “I think what we have seen over a number of years is an increase in reports of sexual crime and that is driven by some degree through the analysis that we carry out.
“A significant proportion of that crime that we report is classed as non-recent crime which are offences that have occurred more than 12 months before people come forward to the police.
“It is really positive to see that happening and part of that is down to the public being more aware to report it because of these high profile incidents and part of it is down to the work we do with partners to raise awareness.
“Another aspect of it is part of our investigative strategy. For these offences quite often we will actively seek out previous victims who may not have had the confidence to report it to the police.
“My first experience in public protection is when I started in the domestic abuse team in 2013 and since then what we have got a lot better at is how we deal with partners in terms of how we address these types of crimes.
“Not just in terms of public protection but across all areas of policing, it is really key for us and is something I focus on a lot.
“We try to secure their engagement so we can effectively target perpetrators and it can increase the confidence in the police to come forward.”
CI Leonard added that anti-social behaviour and assault crimes by young people in rural areas has also become a concern.
He said: “We do realise we have issues with anti-social behaviour and disorder in some areas and we are working with partners to combat that.
“We have a distinct role to play with partners.
“We are seeing young people and some at very young ages involved in assaults and disorders.
“It is key we work with partners in education, within social work, and within the council to try and address that.
“So there are a number of ongoing initiatives to do that through engagement with schools.”
As the summer season draws ever closer, the new Local Area Commander said liaising with rural communities to tackle fly-tippers and other rural crimes is “absolutely invaluable”.
“Fly-tipping is a crime in its own right but it is the negative impact it has on the communities,” he added.
“We are really keen to have a local footprint and that communities, through community councils, through elected members or direct contact, can explain what is important to them and that helps inform us.”
He added: “What we have recently done is made a significant uplift in inspectors within Perth and Kinross.
“We have gone from three inspectors to a total of six, with five of them located within localities.
“Hopefully that will improve our local response and provide greater local management to address issues that are brought up.
“We are always looking to maintain officer numbers and it is something we assess regularly.
“In Perth and Kinross in particular they say from here you can reach 90 per cent of Scotland in a 90-minute period.
“So the region has always experienced people coming into Perth and Kinross and committing crime here who are from outwith the area.
“What I would see as critical is that we are approaching crime from a more holistic point of view.”
CI Leonard concluded that working with partners including schools, the council, community councils and social workers is key in making the region “a safe place”.
“We can’t simply continue to try police our way out of some of these issues - they are far more complex,” he continued.
“The people we are dealing with, whether victims or perpetrators, we are seeing complex needs around a range of things whether that is substance misuse or mental health etc.
“What I would like to see is that we are delivering a quality of service through really strong partnerships and a multi-agency approach.
“I have seen it work and work really effectively and we need to try and promote that.
“Not to have police doing one thing, social work another, education doing another.
“The key is to try and stop that cycle of offending and that cycle of people becoming victims of certain crimes.
“The only way we can do that is to have a more holistic approach and the key is successful partnership working which is really strong in Perth and Kinross.
“Part of my job will be to work alongside Graham Binnie to make sure Perth and Kinross is a safe place for people to work in, live and visit.”
