Central Scotland Police is receiving £300,000 to employ civilians in their Priority Crime Unit to carry out basic investigative work – and allow more officers to work on the frontline and cut crime.

The objective of the ground-breaking initiative is to increase front-line policing by reducing the workload of response policing.

This will allow officers to be redeployed to high visibility community policing or proactive duties focusing on reducing of crime or tackling anti-social behaviour.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, pictured, visited Falkirk to announce the cash news.

He said: "I was highly impressed with the work being carried out by Central Scotland Police to increase the overall capacity of front line policing in the force area.

"Initiatives such as employing civilians in their Priority Crime Unit will release officers to focus on community policing and proactive crime reduction.

"I welcome any measures that seek to allow officers to be redeployed to high visibility community policing which focuses upon
the reduction of crime or tackling anti-social behaviour. That is why the Scottish Government is providing almost £300,000 this year to support this ground-breaking initiative which will release up to 1200 frontline hours every month.''

Mr MacAskill added: "This government has already signalled its commitment to deliver a more visible policing presence on our streets and in our communities by investing £94 million over the next three years and directly recruiting 1000 extra new officers.

"We want these officers to become part of the fabric of the communities they serve, building local knowledge, forging strong relationships with families and businesses and helping support safe and strong communities for all."

Superintendent Robbie McGregor, Falkirk Area Commander, said: "The funding was used to recruit and train staff for the PCU to meet the identified benefits of this strand of workforce modernisation.

"The aim of the pilot has always been to free up frontline policing resources and to improve the quality of service to our comm-
unities."