Rise in complaints about police assault and excessive force

Speaking at a meeting of the Local Police and Fire Scrutiny Panel, Councillor Jim Clocherty said: "As a police scrutiny panel member I wanted to raise the fact that complaints of police assault and the use of excessive force has increased.

"Is this a resource or training issue?"

Statistics show that these reports have increased by 200 per cent and 600 per cent, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

This covers the period April 1 to June 30.

This has increased from two to six, and one to seven.

Chief Inspector David Docherty said the reports of such incidents in numbers terms were low and below the national average.

According to Your Police survey 88.9 per cent of people said they felt safe in their local area compared to a national figure of 77.7 per cent.

While 23.5 per cent said police were doing a good job in their area compared to 26.3 per cent nationally.

But concerns have been raised about traffic and public safety.