THE Borders’ new commander says it is business as usual for policing in the region, despite admitting he will have to work with a tighter budget.
Chief Inspector Andy Clark will be based at Hawick police station, having served 25 years in the force.
The 43-year-old, who has previously served at Duns, said: “We are working within tighter budgets, but my priority is to make sure the people of the Borders do not see any loss of service.
“We still continue to show a decrease in crime, which is happening year on year in the area, and continue to solve over half of all the crime that is reported.
“The big thing for me is that people will not notice a change to policing in the Borders on day one of Police Scotland.”
CI Clark, who has no plans to shut any police stations, says greater access to specialised units mean actions like last year’s Operation Goal, the biggest series of drugs raids in the Borders, could become more common.
He added: “We are in a fortunate position in that we have our intelligence unit all set up who will be feeding us information and we will continue operations such as Operation Goal.
“But these could be bigger and better because of more access to more specialist resources.”