'Third of violent crime in Clacks committed by drunk offenders'

More than a third of people who committed violent crime in Clackmannanshire last year were under the influence of alcohol, a new report has revealed.

Four out of five disorder offences were also committed by someone who was described as drunk or had been drinking, according to the update due to be presented to Clackmannanshire Council’s licensing board on Tuesday.

The Police Scotland report aims to highlight how the misuse of alcohol can often be a contributory factor in calls attended by officers, from low level anti-social behaviour to domestic abuse and incidents of serious violence and injury.

Of 637 cases of violent crime recorded in the region in 2020/21, 34% of the crimes detected involved offenders described as drunk or had been drinking, while 177 of the 504 cases of disorder reported also fell into that category.

Three violent crimes were committed in pubs, the report added, although none of those involved drunk offenders.

Chief constable Iain Livingstone said the figures contained in the report may not tell the whole story.

“When considering these statistics it is important to bear in mind that within the total number of offences involving violent crime and disorder recorded during the year there were charges recorded where the sobriety of the accused was not known,” he noted.

“This would be the case when perhaps the accused was not immediately traced by police.

“Therefore it is a possibility that percentages of those drunk when committing offences could be higher.”

The report also revealed there were eight charges in relation to someone consuming alcohol in a public place last year, although the number of those offences in Clackmannanshire has remained in single figures for many years.

One charge was made against a person buying or attempting to buy alcohol for a group of children, while another charge was made against someone buying or attempting to buy alcohol for a young person.

Both were arrested and reported to the Procurator Fiscal.

The report also noted that there was no need for Police Scotland to apply for any closure orders in Clackmannanshire last year – a power under section 97 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act that relates to any premises deemed as a risk of disorder and risk to public safety.

By local democracy reporter Craig Smith