Police, Fire and Community Safety Committee

Tonight I attended a meeting of Dundee City Council's Policy and Resources (Police, Fire and Community Safety) Committee.  I asked a question about the issue of malicious fire alarm calls.  I was pleased to hear about the efforts which the fire and rescue service put in to ensure that this is dealt with.  It is important that this issue is taken seriously, every time a fire engine leaves a fire station the lives of fire-fighters and members of the public are put at risk.  Therefore it is essential that false alarms, especially malicious ones are kept to a minimum.

In terms of the police part of the committee meeting it was good that the committee followed the lead of my colleague, Kevin Keenan, and take a stance against the routine arming of the police.  I think that it is wrong that the police should be armed routinely.  It is one of the things that pleases me about living in the UK is that the police don't normally carry arms.  It is clear that it is a major change if our police carry arms regularly.  I don't want that and I would certainly say that it is crucial that any change to that is made through a decision by democratically elected politicians.  I fear that this has not been the case so far.

I was also pleased to hear more about the excellent work done by colleague, Councillor Georgia Cruikshank, in supporting the police's work against what is mistakenly called 'legal highs.'  It is disgraceful that people are selling these substances in our city and I want to see strong action taken against it