Agenda item

Community Policing – local issues and priorities

In attendance: Inspector Pete Sparrow

Community Policing – local issues and priorities

Inspector Pete Sparrow updated the Board on crime statistics for the period and current priorities of the local policing teams.

Staffing overview:

There were 4 student officers coming in, which were currently in tutorship and would become independent in February.  There were also 3 extra PCSOs.

Teams were working on strategies that prevent crime and to adopted the mindset of ‘what can I do to stop someone else coming here to deal with the same issue again’.

Local Priorities:

·       Covid patrols – Using the ‘4 E’ approach

·       Rural Crime – prevent/reduce/disrupt/detect, cross border liaison

·       Road Safety  - speed enforcement/CSW

·       ASB  - Downton & Redlynch, closure order checks, youth engagement

·       Vulnerable People – making contact with those identified

Analytical tools help to identify issues. The slide showed all reported crime for Salisbury and southern Wiltshire and specifically the reduction during lockdown one and two.

The Commander control system ‘Storm’ showed incidents of antisocial behaviour, there were 271 incidents recorded in Salisbury over a 3 month period. The majority of the incidents were around Salisbury city.

Whilst there may be some localised clusters, figures showed a lower level of incidents in southern Wiltshire than Salisbury city.

Questions:

During lockdown had there been an increase in domestic violence?

Answer: We did see a rise during lockdown, some of that was seasonal, but the lockdown did coup people together. The message is to stay home, unless it’s not safe to do so.

The Police had not been going overboard on enforcement, please remember that not everybody that is out there breaking a covid regulation is someone that has done it before. It may be accidental.

Answer: Discretion always played a part of Policing, it’s the people that are regularly breaking the rules that need enforcement.

With regards to the burglary figs, were there any particular trends, or opportunist, and what could be done to take a proactive stance to prevent this?

Answer: The majority would be sheds and outbuildings some vans with tools had also been broken in to. We advise marking valuable tools to make it harder and deter these incidents. The use of signage and CCTV also helped.

There had recently been a lot of reports of dog thefts was that a particular concern?

Answer: That was more noise than actual crime, but there has been an arrest today. Last year there were a total of 22 reports of Dog theft for Wiltshire

This area of crime was not as bad as people think. The prices of animals had gone through the roof, they were an expensive commodity and unfortunately with that, they were worth stealing.

Was the Bobby Van still available to come out and advise?

Answer: Yes it is.

Residents had fed back to Cllr Clewer their concerns regarding criminal damage, rural crime and the police response. Last night, cars severely damages, car burnt out, cattle grid damaged and a phone box destroyed, all what residents feel were a linked chain of events. You reported that you stopped a vehicle in Downton a week ago, these events are happening all the time. When they are happening, the Police response was for him to locate CCTV evidence. It made that person see red.

There were also repeated reports over the summer of windows and conservatories smashed at old people’s residence. People have got to the point where they feel all they get from the police is a crime reference number. Things this year have not helped, and people seem to have lost confidence in the Police.

Answer: They are some of the perceptions that I hear. The important part is that incidents must be reported, if not then we do not know about them.

The issues around asking members of the public to look at CCTV, was partly down to a system where we have people on the telephones recording information. They need to distinguish which incidents they need to send the Police to.

People were more likely to know if their neighbour had CCTV and it was acceptable to ask whether they could look to see if something was captured. We need to put our resources where they were most needed.

With the issues in Downton, it was sad that people were not reporting incidents. There weren’t that many offences in Downton and Redlynch.  

The Chair noted that there clearly was a problem in the areas Cllr Clewer had spoken about and asked how they could be taken forward?

Cllr Clewer added that there was a theft from vans in Whiteparish, where the initial Police response was good. Then nothing was followed up.

Answer: I would be happy to take some of the detail on the incidents that were not followed up and look at that and would discuss the other matters with Cllr Clewer to take those forward.