I went and spoke to Sergeant Davie Threadgold and PCs Brown & Riddell at Turriff Police Station to get their views on policing in Turriff.
Davie, how are you finding it here in Turriff?
Davie Threadgold
I love it, I’ve never worked in a station where people write to you! In all my years in the police I’ve not had people write letters to me at the station.
Since I’ve started here I’ve not had to deal with one housebreaking. You live in a decent place.
What do you think when people complain about Operation Tractable and say go and do some real police work or catch some real criminals?
What is a real criminal?
Tell us about it and we will go and deal with it. Police Scotland have an intelligence system, we look at it on a daily basis and there is nothing about Turriff on there.
As I say you live in a decent place but, if you see something or know something that we should be dealing with then come and tell us.
If the door is open at the station come in and see us.
On operation Tractable, do you think it is working?
I think residents are seeing an improvement with what we are doing yes.
We’re working with the drivers to make them understand the impact their actions can have. We ask them to think how their granny would feel if someone was revving their engine outside her house.
We need to keep working with drivers and educating them. Every week their are serious or fatal accidents on the roads in Aberdeenshire. If our operation can help reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads then it can only be a good thing.
Is it fair that young drivers are targeted?
Scott Brown
We are dealing with anti social driving in general, it’s not just young people. I’ve dealt with drivers of all ages over the past few weeks.
What do you say to people who say they never see the police?
Davie Threadgold
We’d love to have enough police to send someone out to every road in town, but we don’t. There are more foot patrols happening and I do all I can to make sure officers stay in and around Turriff. We have three new starters coming to Turriff soon so hopefully people will be seeing more of us.
John Riddell
With the new starters Turriff will have the highest staff numbers that I can remember here in Turriff.
Davie Threadgold
As I say you live in a decent place with low crime. We’ll keep working to deal with the anti social driving. If anyone has a problem with what we are doing or wants to have a chat with us about what we do, just come in and see us. If the door is open then come in and see us.
So there you have it, a far more open and proactive approach to policing in Turriff thanks to Sergeant Threadgold and his teams based in town.
