Buckie and Keith new police inspector enjoying early successes after return to the area
The charms of Buckie and its hinterland have drawn many a person back to the area, and none more so than the town’s newest senior police officer.
Inspector Davy Robertson took over command of the Buckie and Keith stations - totalling around 30 officers and five sergeants - on August 26 last year for what will be his third stint serving the area.
Prior to taking over the reins he was based at the public Protection Unit in Elgin, but a return to the fishing town was always on the cards.
He said: “I did my first five years in the police, which included my two years of probation, from 1999 to 2004 here.
“Then I was also a sergeant here for just short of two years from 2014 to 2016 and it was always my ambition to come back and finish my career at Buckie irrespective of the rank, so I'm just fortunate that I managed to work in three ranks here.
“It’s a place I love to work at, it’s a wonderful place and the people are fantastic. They're realistic about the expectation of what the police can provide them at times. Policing is an ever-changing environment, but not only that, there's such a variety of work for police officers here. The beat extends from Portgordon in the west through to just beyond Cullen in the east, and inland over to Deskford.
“We're really spoiled by our views at times - the location, the weather, the people. Then, of course, you have the complete contrast to going to Keith as well, which is obviously a more rural kind of farming area. By the same token, though, it's got its challenges as well. We've got the main A96 running through the middle of Keith and we've got a busy street at the weekends.
“It's not only Keith itself, because you've got Fife Keith as well. It's got its own challenges, but I think we get the right balance of where we are with it and how we're trying to police it.”
Insp Robertson, who originally hails from Coatbridge in North Lanarkshire, packed in a lot of experience before realising his life’s dream of a career in the police. An electrician to trade, he worked as an apprentice in a factory after leaving school.
The other side of the world beckoned when his apprenticeship was over, heading for South Africa where he worked for seven years in the gold mines. The birth of his son prompted the family to move back to Scotland.
He then worked in the construction and maintenance industries for a further seven years before realising his ambition and joining the then Grampian Police.
Insp Robertson stressed that the life experience he gained before donning a uniform as being vital.
“I think it was important that, from my point of view, I got a bit of life experience before joining the police. I had an unsuccessful attempt at joining Strathclyde - it was purely based on life experience, I know that for a fact.
“When I came to join Grampian Police, as it was then, I was far more experienced and ready for the challenges that they were going to present to me. I was delighted when I was successful. For sure it made me a better officer.”
Although just a few months in the job, he has already scored some successes, stressing he wants to put the police back at the centre of local communities.
Insp Robertson continued: “My initial priority when I came here was to reduce violence, I thought that the violence was significant.
“I spoke to all the sergeants about that. To do that, we needed intelligence and only we get intelligence by getting out and engaging with the public. We did that and we reduced it significantly.
“To this day, we still get a bit of violence. It's crept in lately, but we're still well on top of it. I want the Buckie people to feel safe in their own communities. When they see the police coming, they've got nothing to be afraid of. We're friends.
“However, I want the people who are causing problems to feel hostile towards us, I want them to see the police coming and think ‘We need to be on our toes here’. They know we're going to be on top of them no matter what happens. That's the way it's going to be.
“Sitting in the office, you're not going to catch anything. You have to be out there in the community. We're policed by consent, without the consent of the community, we really struggle.
“For me, it's all about getting the people on board. There's always going to be people who are not happy with the police - I can live with that. In general, those people who aren't happy with the police are people who have always had an issue with the police.
“I think the folk of Buckie respect the police. They rely on us to provide them a service and I just want us to maintain that service as well.”
One of the biggest changes Insp Robertson said he had seen during the course of his police career was the increasing demands which can be placed on officer during the course of their everyday jobs, which can often see them as first responders in variety of situations.
Away from the demands of the job, Insp Robertson is a familiar face to the Moray and north-east football fraternity in his role as a referee. He also enjoys a game of golf.
