Central Scotland Police

Confidential counselling and advice

Central Scotland Police is committed to tackling all forms of hate crime motivated by malice or ill will based on Age, Disability, Gender, Race, Religion/Belief or Sexual Orientation. You can read more about this in our recently published Equality Scheme.

Part of that committment is offering support to members of Lesbian Gay Transgender and Bisexual communities (LGBT) across Forth Valley, who may need to seek advice or assistance for a range of issues, or indeed report crime.

Recorded crime of this nature is rare within the Central Scotland area.

If you do require to report a crime as an emergency you should use the 999 emergency telephone number.

If you require to speak to a member of the Interventions Unit, contact a member of staff on 01786 456 000.

Alternatively, a helpline exists to allow for third-party reporting of homophobic crime. It is staffed by trained members of the LGBT community. It is supported by FLAGS, an LGBT support group operating in the Forth Valley area, and Strathclyde Lesbian and Gay Switchboard.

The helpline telephone number is 01786 469483.

The aims of the telephone helpline, apart from access to advice and counselling, are to provide a remote reporting facility, to increase our knowledge of harassment and crime suffered by the gay community in Forth Valley, to increase our service to and to increase the confidence in our service amongst members of the LGBT community.

Callers can speak anonymously and confidentially to helpine staff, who are all trained in counselling skills. Options for callers will be counselling, advice, or in the event of a crime, to report it to the police via helpline staff.

Any crimes reported via this third party route will thereafter be investigated by officers of Central Scotland Police.