Anti-social behaviour and street-level crime, drugs, and road safety named as new policing priorities by Inspector Charlotte Ellam, District Commander for Newark and Sherwood

Welcome to September’s Newark and Sherwood neighbourhood policing newsletter, writes Inspector Charlotte Ellam, District Commander for Newark and Sherwood.

Current priorities in your area

As we always do every three months or so, we recently reviewed our neighbourhood policing priorities for the area, and this time decided to change it up a bit for the period September to December.

Before this, our four priorities were tackling anti-social behaviour in Newark, street-level crime and the night-time economy in the town centre, and retail crime across the wider district.

As I’ve said, our priorities are reviewed each quarter during a multi-agency meeting that involves our community partners. This meeting looks at the data from crime recording and intelligence systems held by the police, the Police Crime Commissioner’s Office, and responses to the ‘What Matters’ survey submitted via the Notts Alert system, before determining which matters are most important to you.

After reviewing some of this feedback, the two issues that came up the most were anti-social behaviour once again and road safety, particularly in the lead up to the winter months, when it’ll start to get darker and the weather more unpredictable. We’ve therefore elected to take both these on, while also retaining street-level crime — but for the whole of Newark, not just the town centre — and adding drug offences too.

So, just to recap the priorities for our neighbourhood policing team for the next quarter then — we’ll be focusing on anti-social behaviour and street-level crime in Newark, and drug crime and road safety for the district as a whole.

Actions on our priorities

Focusing on the two we’ve taken off as priorities first — retail crime and night-time economy policing — it really should go without saying but we’re not just suddenly going to start ignoring these issues going forward! On the contrary, they’ll just be added to our neighbourhood teams’ daily business.

After selecting night-time economy policing at the start of the summer, our officers started providing a dedicated policing presence in Newark town centre every Friday and Saturday evening with the specific task of policing the pubs and bars during those peak hours.

Officers routinely conducted walk throughs, licensing checks and engaged with door staff and customers to provide reassurance and deter any offending. They also attended pub watch meetings to work with licensees and listen to their feedback, as well as numerous events in the town centre over the summer to provide reassurance and deter offending.

On that front, it was reassuring to see no reports of serious violence in the town centre during the night-time economy hours in August.

Over the last three months, we’ve continued our efforts to target prolific retail crime offenders, with the hope of quickly arresting them and putting them before the courts.

This approach resulted in a high positive outcomes rate — where some form of sanction has followed a reported offence — for shop theft across the district, while shop theft also dropped by 34% across Newark and Sherwood, when compared to this time last year.

We are currently working with the force’s Prevention Hub and Newark and Sherwood District Council on other opportunities to address offending, such as Criminal Behaviour Orders and injunctions.

In terms of street-level crime and anti-social behaviour, which often go hand-in-hand, there has been a heightened police presence in Newark town centre and Hawtonville as part of the Hot Spot Patrol Fund and the Safer Towns for Summer initiative.

Across the district, meanwhile, we have conducted patrols and responded to reports of anti-social behaviour from the public, while the team have attended numerous community events to provide a visible presence and deter offending. We are continuing to work with the council to use all options available to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour, including the proactive use of Public Space Protection Orders and other civil powers.

We have seen a reduction in anti-social behaviour of 14%, compared to last year, but we are aware this is an ongoing challenge, which is why we’ve elected to retain both these priority areas.

Did you hear about this?

The effectiveness of the patrols our officers carry out, as well as their local knowledge, was showcased on back-to-back days over the summer, when our teams recognised and stopped a pair of prolific shoplifters in Newark town centre.

Our officers were in the right place at the right time to stop and arrest both Stephen Peacock, 65, and Wayne Cook, 55, who were wanted for a number of thefts. Peacock, of Bakewell Close, Balderton, and Cook, of Belmond Close, Newark, were both subsequently locked up for 16 weeks apiece.

Our officers then received an unlikely helping hand in detaining a knife-carrier, who jumped in the river, near Southwell, and started swimming to the riverbank opposite.

Faced with the prospect of being stranded on the wrong side of the river and with no other way of getting across, police were helped by a passing boat owner, who ferried them all across, so that the individual could be safely detained.

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