Detective Inspector Laura White, from the Lothians and Scottish Borders Public Protection Unit, gives us an update on policing in the area...

We are once again thankful to Chief Inspector Vinnie Fisher for allowing us to use his column to highlight the issues that officers within Public Protection deal with.

Domestic abuse, for example, comes in many forms, including physical, emotional, and financial, as well as coercive control.

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It affects people from all walks of life and can have devastating consequences. Police Scotland is committed to working alongside a range of key partners to identify perpetrators of such offences and bring them to justice, while at the same time providing survivors with all the necessary support they may require.

Between Monday,June 12 and Friday, June 16, officers within the Scottish Borders engaged with local partners and communities to raise awareness of domestic abuse and signpost to relevant services that can provide assistance.

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During this time we held a pop up event at the Galashiels Transport Interchange, where Police Scotland, Borders Women’s Aid and Scottish Borders Rape Crisis were present to chat and answer questions from members of public.

Similar events will also take place in the region so stay tuned to our social media channels for more details.

We have also already held a successful session recently alongside Women's Aid at Farne Salmon. Farne Salmon have a large diverse group of staff from all cultures, so this was an important engagement opportunity to reach communities who may not be aware of what constitutes domestic abuse offending.

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The Police Scotland "That Guy" campaign, which aims to challenge and change male behaviour and attitudes towards women in order to reduce sexual assault and harassment occurring, is ongoing and details of which can be found on our website.

Officers have visited various licensed premises and rugby clubs across the region to promote this aspect of the campaign and members of the public will have seen our posters and leaflets in local shops, salons, pubs and the leisure centres we have been visiting in order to highlight the cause and sign post for support.

Our national Domestic Abuse Co-Ordination Unit have created an online form has been added to the Police Scotland website. Accessing this will allow us to gain anonymous feedback from survivors of domestic abuse, rape or other sexual crime, to help improve the quality of service we provide.

The aim of the form is to get honest feedback from survivors about how we, as an organisation, handle criminal incidents of domestic abuse, rape and sexual assault and where we can make improvements to our service. Respondents will be asked not to provide any information that could identify them or their location.

I would encourage anyone who has reported incidents to us to feedback in order that we can ensure the level of service we provide meets the needs and expectations of the communities we live in.