Mr Halcro Johnston spoke out after official Scottish Government figures showed incidents of recorded crime in Moray had risen by six times the national average between 2017/18 and 2018/19.
The Scottish Conservative MSP said: “Residents in Moray will share my concern that in the last recorded twelve months there were 2,640 crimes across our area which was an increase of 6%. That’s much higher than the rise experienced across most of the rest of Scotland.
“I am particularly concerned that reported incidents of sexual crime are up by 11% in just twelve months.
“We think of Moray as an area relatively free of crime so this should be a wake-up call to Scottish Government ministers whose neglect of Moray now seems to extend to practically every area they are responsible for.
“The police deserve the support of the whole community but, ultimately, it is up to the SNP Government to provide our local officers with the support and the resources they need to carry out their responsibilities.
“However, these results make very clear the problems local police are facing, and that the SNP Government in Edinburgh needs to do far more to help our police tackle this upsurge in criminal activity.”
