Inspector Cassie Glass takes over from predecessor Gerry McBride as head of the community unit at Johnstone Police Station.

She started in the area on December 8 and has already had the satisfaction of reporting a drop in the number of domestic incidents and crime.

In her previous roles she has gained a wealth of experience and one of the most high profile inquiries she has worked on was the killing of Javaid Ali.

The Paisley shopkeeper died after being stabbed in the neck at Sunshine Grocers in Green Road on June 15, 2012.

A jury at the High Court in Glasgow convicted Lee Anderson, 31, of the culpable homicide and he was jailed for 15 years.

The harrowing case attracted nationwide attention and left a mark on everyone involved in bringing Anderson to justice — including Inspector Glass.

“I’m originally joined the police in Tayside and moved to Strathclyde six years ago,” she explained.

“More recently I’ve worked in Clydebank as the community policing inspector in 2011, then I came over to Paisley and I worked in the Javaid Ali inquiry, the shopkeeper who was stabbed in the neck in Paisley.

“Then I was in an intelligence role until a year ago when I went to Greenock to become response inspector where I worked for the past year.

“I joined here in December for my new role as community inspector. I’m excited about this new challenge and about bringing some of my ideas from the post over in Clydebank.” During her role covering the West Dunbartonshire area, Inspector Glass also worked as the local authority liaison officer where she introduced a number of community initiatives.

She is now hoping to implement one of these in Renfrewshire — geared around Johnstone High School — after formulating plans and submitting a funding application to Police Scotland last week.

If approved, the project, named Choices For Life, will be rolled out to school pupils in the town and is aimed at raising awareness of the dangers of social media and lethal drugs such as ecstasy and alcohol.

“It will be really good if we get funding,” she enthused. “It’s all about making positive choices and is geared at the secondary schools age group.

“The plan is to launch an event in Johnstone High School if we get the funding. It will cover alcohol, drugs, road safety, internet safety, peer pressure and anti-social behaviour, custodial sentences for those who carry knives, the whole wraparound and is geared around three-minute mini dramas.

“It would be really good if we get the funding for the initiative, it’s developed over the last couple of weeks but there’s also a lot of other bits and pieces on the go.” Inspector Glass’s enthusiasm is clear to see as she outlines her aspirations to make the area a safer, more positive place to work and live.

And she revealed she has also been involved in setting up a special housebreaking team, launched just after the New Year, following a spate of break-ins and burglary attempts throughout Johnstone and the surrounding villages.

She said: “The housebreaking team has been set up with myself and Inspector Stevie Espie. We’ve suffered a number of housebreakings in the area. There’s been no pattern and there is different individuals targeting sheds, right through to more professional break-ins to houses and cars.

“This has probably been one of the most important new things we’ve implemented and we’re following very positive lines of inquiry now.

“The team started on Monday and there are a lot of positive leads. Another thing we’ve noticed is that there was hardly any crime over the festive period, which is incredible.” Inspector Glass also said she was looking forward to the move into Johnstone’s new £14.5 million town hall in spring this year.

She added: “The new public counter in the town hall will mean easier access for people to speak to their local police.

“There will also be more access to parking and we want people to see that we’ve increased the visibility of officers.

“A lot of people say they don’t see as many officers walking the streets so we’d like to make improvements on this and utilise police officers on pedal cycles more effectively. This will also be the case in the more rural areas of Renfrewshire and this will offer reassurance to the public.

“Our main priority is to take on board the concerns of the public and address these as effectively as possible.”