Four female police officers set to become familiar faces as they continue to fight crime in Grangemouth

Grangemouth Community Police team is one of the few to feature an all-female line-up of officers and their newly installed sergeant could not be happier with the job they have done so far.

Having been in place since November last year, Sgt Martyn Paterson, who previously worked with Falkirk Community Police after serving with the drug unit and proactive CID in Stirling, is relishing his first post as sergeant and leading such a committed team.

"I don’t know if they are the first all-female team, but it is the first time I’ve been heard about it in my experience – although it’s probably happened before. It wasn’t a conscious thing, they are just the officers who were appointed.

"It’s just the way it’s worked out.”

And things are working out well so far.

The team, Rhianna Christie, Meghan Denvir, Marnie Pacitti and Kimberly Porter, are already becoming “well kent” faces on the streets – and in the schools – of Grangemouth.

Sgt Paterson said: “We work towards the national policing priorities, working with our partners to keep people safe. Locally there are issues with drugs, drug dealing, anti-social behaviour, crimes of disorder and acquisitive crime.

"The team are visible out there in the community, on mobile patrols in hotspot areas almost every day. That's what the community team are there to do – they are there to be seen.

"They are the face of the community police out on the beat. We want to be proactive and not reactive – to respond to information from the public and stop potential crimes before they are committed, not try to solve them after they have happened.

"This is why the community team is out there speaking to people and gathering intelligence – which can then be acted upon.”

Both PC Christie and PC Pacitti have been policing in Grangemouth for a couple of years now. Both officers said this is the first time they had been involved in a team with all female personnel, although like Sgt Paterson, they are sure similar teams have served together before in other areas.

"Youth disorder has probably taken up most of our time,” said PC Pacitti. “So we go into schools quite a lot to talk to the pupils a lot. We are on foot patrol a lot and the youngsters know our faces, they know who we are.

"People will ask for you by name, whether it’s kids or adults and the kids all know our first names. It just takes time to build up that connection.”

PC Christie added: “We follow up on things – that’s what is good about the community team. You have time to see things through to the end.

If there is a crime in progress people should always call 999 or 101, but if anyone wants to get in touch with Grangemouth Community Team to report issues or problems locally they can e-mail them at [email protected] and someone will be in touch.