Stirling’s top police officer has insisted racism is “not an issue” in the area, despite an increase in the number of racially-aggravated crimes. Presenting to Stirling Council’s public safety committee on August 22, Police Scotland’s Chief Inspector Sarah McArthur highlighted the 146.2% rise in detections of racially-aggravated harassment and conduct between 2023-24 and 2022-23.
She said: “Positively, our detection rate in is higher than the force detection rate.” The report presented to the committee shows 32 incidents took place in 2023-24, compared to 13 the year before. But the senior officer stressed that during the reporting period for the public safety committee, seven crimes of a racial nature were reported – fewer than during the previous reporting period.
Chief Inspector McArthur said each incident was “in their own right, really unacceptable,” before providing further context for some of the seven offences. The first incident took place at a homeless accommodation centre, another was a road-rage incident and one was was a neighbour dispute that is currently being managed by local community police. Other victims included a door steward and a shopkeeper, while the final incident involved parents of children who had fallen out.
“Police Scotland will not stand for any racial incidents,” the inspector said. “But, I think the important thing out of all of those is that the context of them is that they’re isolated incidents. “These aren’t .