23/06/2026
Since the start of the year community officers have been focusing on plainclothes patrols and operations in North East, Edinburgh targeting criminality and anti-social behaviour affecting our local communities. Additional funding to support this has been made available by the National Retail Crime Task Force, which the Northeast successfully secured following a bidding process.
A retail crime operation was held in Leith as recently as this week. In a unique situation, former Special Constables, now regular officers jointly worked directly alongside their former Special Constable colleagues to arrest a male in Leith who was then charged with a variety of matters, including sexual offences, retail theft, theft, and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
To date this year, the combined retail crime and pro-active crime patrols held this year have netted the following results.
Number of operations conducted: 31
Knives seized: 5
Weapons seized: 3
Retail worker assault charges 4
Shoplifting charges: 137
Drug supply cases: 11
Stop searches: 95.
Licensed premises inspected: 10
Trading without a trader’s licence: 3
Vehicles seized for road traffic offences:
1 motorbike
3 Sur-Ron motorbikes
3 e-bikes
3 e-scooters.
Apprehension warrants where a wanted person has been traced and arrested: 62.
In total £167,414 of Class A, B and C drugs have been seized by officers.
Regular officers have come to work with us on their days off for overtime from across the east coast of Scotland. In addition to this we have also had Special Constables travel from as far as Fife to work shifts with us. These operations and patrols provide have proved very popular providing officers with a variety of opportunities and experiences in plainclothes policing.
We aim to continue these operations whilst collaborating with partners to make our communities safer for all.
