Police swooped on pubs and clubs across Moray and Aberdeenshire at the weekend as part of a blitz on violent crime over the festive period.
The initiative will run until January, with a view to decreasing assault rates during a normally volatile time for officers.
Chief Inspector Richard Craig, area commander for Aberdeenshire South, said the weekend proved “very busy” for officers patrolling some of the north-east’s more crowded towns.
Operation Sandside was formed at the end of October to crack down on assault figures, and in its first two weeks led to a 41% reduction in violent crime compared to that period last year.
The Festive Sandside initiative got under way in Elgin, with an increased police presence at the town’s popular nightspots.
Sergeant Ally Bruce began the weekend by briefing local constables on what to expect from the increasingly busy nightlife on the horizon.
The 25-year later explained that pub patrols are routinely stepped up around Christmas, but Operation Festive Sandside represented a more focussed approach to stamping out trouble.
He said: “It’s really about detecting and reducing violent crime, we’re looking to take a proactive approach and cool down any situations before they reach the point of physicality.
“We believe having more officers on the streets should act as a visual deterrent.”
Following the briefing the officers buckled up against the lashing rain and fierce wind and ventured out to begin patrols.
At the station the word “quiet” is superstitiously regarded as a jinx, and shortly after remarking on a lack of activity in the town constables David Allan and Jamie Day were thrust into the middle of a stramash on the upper floor of Elgin’s Granary bar.
Shortly after 10pm the officers were forced to jostle their way through a sea of revellers to reach a fracas in the far corner of the room.
One man was ultimately arrested after lashing out at a bouncer and refusing to leave the building.
Later on, while out on patrol, constables Alison Thow and Chris Harris discovered two men in their 20s snorting cocaine in an alleyway.
A gram of the Class A drug was confiscated, as well as the smartphone the men were using to share out the substance, and both were reported to the procurator fiscal.
On Saturday, officers in Turriff handed out a number of fixed penalty notices to revellers who had committed “low level disorders”.
Throughout the weekend Elgin police station’s CCTV operator Neil Scott kept a close eye over town centres across Moray, which are beamed to a bank of TV monitors.
Ch Insp Craig added: “Saturday night was a very busy night across Aberdeenshire and Moray, and there were several additional officers out on high visibility foot patrol.
“They focussed particularly on Inverurie, Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Elgin and Turriff.
“The high-profile policing, and interaction between officers and the public, has had an impact on violence as no-one was arrested for assault.
“In the coming weeks it will get increasingly busy, and we want people to go out and enjoy themselves as long as they do so in a responsible manner.”