A second Strathclyde Police officer has been seconded to work with Glasgow City Council’s Environmental Protection Services to help cut down environmental crimes.

PC Clare McLelland will be working full time with the Council’s environmental enforcement officers to tackle areas such as fly tipping and fly posting, grafitti, vehicle emissions, dog fouling and night time noise.

In November last year, Strathclyde PC David Duncan became the first full time secondment to help collect accurate evidence to help enforce environmental legislation.  Although the Council has been reasonably successful with enforcement – particularly on commercial refuse issues – it had been very difficult under existing legislation to take successful action on offenders.  The presence of a police officer accompanying the enforcement teams has allowed much more effective action to be taken.

Since November, PC Duncan’s arrival has seen an increase in the number of penalty tickets issued and several cases being prepared for reporting to the Procurator Fiscal on serious environmental pollution in the city.  Hundreds more have been given stern warnings about their future behaviour.  It’s expected the arrival of PC McLelland will have a similar impact which can only be bad news for the criminals but good news for those who want to see a much cleaner Glasgow.

PC McLelland said:

" I am looking forward to my new role working alongside David and environmental enforcement officers from the Council in detecting those people who commit a wide range of environmental crime across the city. There have already been many successes by the team and with my arrival as an additional resource these successes can only be built upon helping to make Glasgow a cleaner city to live and work in."

Councillor David Stevenson, Convener of Glasgow City Council’s Environmental Protection Services said:

“The presence of an officer from Strathclyde Police has been invaluable in collecting accurate data to allow us to take action on environmental crimes.  PC McLelland’s secondment adds even more strength to what is a very powerful partnership.”

Assistant Chief Constable John McLean Strathclyde Police (Community Safety) added:

"Strathclyde Police is committed to tackling the problem of environmental crime which has such a negative impact on our communities.  By working in partnership with Glasgow City Council we can crackdown on dog fouling, fly tipping, littering and noise pollution which contribute to the fear of crime and can have damaging long-term effects on our communities.

“Constable Duncan's secondment has lead to positive improvements and highlighted the need for an additional officer to assist in the fight against environmental crime.  We will continue to monitor the progress of this initiative but I am sure Constable McLelland will make a valuable contribution to this worthwhile and effective partnership."