Hard day's night on the edge

She isn't. Amongst her sobs, the young girl manages to slur that she has taken a heroin overdose. She tells them she just can't face living any more.

Within minutes, two night wardens are on the scene tending to the increasingly ill woman. They comfort her, make sure she doesn't fall unconscious and get her to hospital.

That was 16 months ago. The girl made a full recovery – and said she was glad she was found alive that night.

Such incidents are all in a day's – or rather night's – work for Edinburgh City Council community safety officers Richard Brown, 45, and Ricky Barclay, 31.

There's a broad range to the work of the duo – and the 55 other community safety officers across the city, who first started walking the streets in November 2008. At the more serious end of the scale, Richard and Ricky are on the lookout for people at risk of taking their own life.

But they also scan the streets for people who are saturated with alcohol, fly tippers, underage drinkers, dog fouling, street litter control and those dumping materials – such as street cones or pint glasses – that might pose a hazard to others. They watch intently for those lurking in dark corners, lonely individuals dawdling on the side of a bridge or people curled up on park benches. At weekends, in particular, a combination of alcohol or other substances, late nights and socialising can be flashpoints for the upset and vulnerable.

Ricky explains: "The case with the girl who took a heroin overdose was particularly horrific, but there is so much going on across the city. Sometimes you can't even walk ten feet without stumbling across something. It's probably most common to find drunk people. It is incredible how many girls we find in tiny miniskirts and boob tubes who have fallen asleep in an alleyway or on a park bench in the middle of winter.

"People also throw traffic cones off bridges or chuck around tables and chairs. On North Bridge in particular we had a problem with intoxicated people who were urinating from the top of the bridge on to people below. Nobody can fail to notice the homeless people on our streets. We make sure they are OK and aren't aggressive."

This week, in particular, the safety duo are on the lookout for people who seem predisposed to injuring themselves. As part of Suicide Prevention Awareness Week – which has been marked with powerful posters demonstrating vulnerable people vomiting up the word "suicide" – the team are visiting all of the "suicide hotspots" across the city and are trying to spread the word that there are other options.

In particular, the team scan bridges, the Meadows, Calton Hill and Canongate Kirk for those in distress.

But tonight the Capital appears quiet. A few scantily-clad girls click along the streets to the various bars, and small crowds jostle with friends, but mostly the streets are bare. "The volcanic ash has a lot to do with that, believe it or not," Richard says. "The load of stag and hen parties we'd usually get aren't making it across to Edinburgh."

But even something like a natural disaster can't curb somebody who is intent on taking their own life. On cue we stop at one of the four bridges the pair normally check on their nightshift, North Bridge.

Apart from a few empty chip wrappers, the area is still. But a couple of eye-catching Samaritans posters on the walls indicate that not all the people who visit here come to appreciate the view. Richard says: "It's a relatively new initiative, the posters. North Bridge is known as a bit of a suicide attraction – the people who often come here have resolved to take that action – so the posters give them one last chance to think again and reassess their choice.

"You find that sometimes, psychologically, this is the trigger they need to get help, to inspire second thoughts."

Scanning the bridge carefully, Ricky adds: "We look for the key signs – if somebody is disorientated, confused, walking around the bridge area and staring intently over the edge. If we see somebody who is upset, we try to comfort them and get them to a safer spot. We don't usually touch them because that can make some more upset."