Police want more reports of domestic abuse

But that, according to Superintendent Angus MacInnes, is not necessarily a welcome trend.

He will tell tomorrow’s meeting of the Police, fire & Rescue and Safer Communities Board at Newtown that 179 incidents were investigated over the quarter, compared to 230 in the corresponding period of last year.

“The aim is to encourage reporting of domestic abuse, so ideally we would like to see the number of reported incidents increasing, not decreasing,” says Supt MacInnes.

In his performance report to the board on behalf of Police Scotland, he will also reveal more positive reductions in crimes, with common assaults down from 194 to 171, housebreakings down from 27 to 24, and incidents of antisocial behaviour down from 1,451 to 1,266.

The number of so-called hate crimes rose from 17 to 19 – of which 12 were race-related with the victims including seven white Europeans and five Asians.

Five of the crimes were homophobic in nature.

“We will continue to increase the confidence of people in reporting this type of crime,” states Supt MacInnes.

Overall, crime detection in the Borders rose to 54.1% compared to 52.4% a year ago.

There were 22 complaints against the police, 19 relating to on-duty officers and three regarding the force’s quality of service.