| Tayside Joint Police Board, meeting today in Dundee’s City Chambers, heard that 104 of them have already been paid by offenders wishing to avoid their cases going to court.
Assistant Chief Constable Willie Bald said the notices were “particularly effective in giving people a salutory lesson.” He added, “They seem to be effective from a police point of view.”
The new scheme is part of a Government crackdown on anti-social behaviour. The approach is similar to “conditional offers” for some motoring offences and has the aims of speeding up justice, reducing bureaucracy, freeing up police and court time and reducing minor anti-social behaviour through the immediacy of its impact.
It targets bad behaviour such as minor breaches of the peace, drinking in public against bye-laws and urinating in the street. The offender has the option of paying the fine within 28 days or challenging the notice in court.
Mr Bald said that a total of 277 notices had been issued up to last Thursday.
Councillor Joe Morrow said he had seen how officers were able to “de-escalate” situations without the need for prosecutions and sought an assurance the notices would not be used to prosecute people who might otherwise escape with a police warning.
Mr Bald said the tickets
were not an alternative to a warning, but an alternative to being charged and prosecuted.
The notices are temporarily recorded so that, although it might be possible for one person to receive perhaps three over six years, they would not be able to be given that number over six months.
He added, “We don’t want to be drawn into a situation of prosecuting people who wouldn’t have been prosecuted in the past.” |
