Scottish Police Use EMPTY Police Car as Crime Prevention Tool

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The Scottish Police  have created an innovative new crime fighting technique, that doesn't even require them to be at the scene; they've started parking empty police cars in crime hotspots to deter criminals.

According to the Evening Telegraph, a marked Vauxhall Zafira police car was parked there close to midnight on Monday and stayed there (parked on double yellow lines) on Dens Road, near Dundee until about 8:30pm the following day when another police car dropped someone off who then drove it away.

Writers at Evening Telegraph phoned cops to ask why the car had been seemingly abandoned, and were told by police that the vehicle had been left there in aid of crime prevention.

A spokeswoman for Police Scotland, Tayside Division, commented: “Police Scotland continues to provide a visible presence in the communities of Tayside, whether officers are on patrol or by the use of marked police vehicles, in order to deter, disrupt and detect criminality and keep people safe.”

City councilor Kevin Keenan, who sits on Dundee’s Policy and Resources Committee, said: “I think there’s no substitute for people seeing the police walking along the streets — that’s what the general public wants to see. I suppose it’s still good to have a visible police presence and I think it could work for an hour or so, but when it’s parked as long as almost 24 hours, then people will think it’s either broken down, or it’s just been dumped there. It’s certainly not perfect and it’s seems a strange tactic to use and I’d like to find out the full explanation for its use. Perhaps there’s a surplus of police cars and I did hear the number of officers leaving the force had risen, so maybe there’s a shortage of staff?”

Have you seen any seemingly abandoned police cars in your area?, What do you think of this tactic? Let us know in the comments below.