A major police campaign is under way in parts of Irvine - and officers have appealed for the public's ongoing help in driving down crime in the community.

The Redburn and Vineburgh areas are the focus of pro-active policing work, members of Irvine Community Council have been told. 

And local police sergeant Will Thomson has asked members of the public to keep supplying information to him and his team.

Sergeant Thomson told members of the community council:  “This month we are doing a lot of proactive work in Redburn and Vineburgh area. 

“It has been good up until now if we can keep the information coming in.

“There are so different many avenues we can go down in terms of delivering information to us anonymously and I would encourage people to keep that coming as it is obviously delivering results.

“If anyone has concerns about furnishing information, contact me at Irvine Police Office.

“It is important people understand that we are quite happy to take on sorting the wheat from the chaff and we are specialists at doing so let us do that job for them."

Sgt Thomson continued to explain how all information could be of use to police.

He added: “We don’t want silly questions or silly information, though some information some people think is silly can be useful, so it is important that people come forward and help clean up our communities. It has been really busy in the past month.

“I am working with a really good bunch of people just now, so the longer we can keep them with us, and the longer we can keep the cars flying about till it all settles down, the better.

“But we need the information from the public. It’s sometimes frustrating when we don’t get it.

“I appreciate what the public have done within the past month and a half. It has really been quite encouraging. 

“Visibility breeds more engagement. If people know you are there, they will come up to you or they will contact you.

"It all ties in with grass roots and with the police making a good impression with kids early doors.”

The community council heard that 890 incidents were reported to police in the Irvine area between February 5 and March 5, down 105 from the previous month. 

A total of 272 crimes were reported during the period, with 130 of them detected.

 

Twelve incidents either involved no crime, or were incident reports raised in error, while 130 are still under investigation.