Agenda item

Michael Rogers.

If we can let the police know the breakdowns of what the forum wants, this can be arranged for the next meeting. Specific statistics take a while to come together.

Q: There has been a spike in burglaries

A: Dedicated burglary team has been set up by the chief constable. Dedicated team to now focus on dwelling burglaries. Investigators and pro-active team to do enforcement. It’s something we are taking seriously and this team are looking to reduce these incidents.

Town centre shops have been getting broke into lately. This falls into neighbourhood team, Michael and a PCSO. Have been doing follow up visits to the shops. House burglaries always get visits but shops do not always. Found patterns and since then there has been 3 arrest and commercial burglaries in the town have dropped dramatically.

Q: Is it taken seriously, as a major event still, do people still get visits?

A: Since the new chief constable has come into force, this has been treated as an important issue. Targeting the main nominals will hopefully reduce incidents.

Q: BO am I right in saying that you said there’s only one officer and one PCSO on the town?

A: Yes, it is just us, it has reduced the neighbourhood team’s right down to the minimum but the new constable is looking to change this.

BO this seems inadequate.

MR I understand that it does, it’s hard to be effective dealing with issues. If I am on a rest day or annual leave, there is no unfortunately no cover which makes covering the area very difficult and we need a police presence in the town centre.

Q: Is this just a daytime patrol?

A: 8am until midnight, one officer is on during daytime, and one is on during night-time.

Q: Is there more on Friday and Saturday nights?

A: Yes there is, this doesn’t count as neighbourhood.

AT: When we asked about apprenticeships, I did ask about those who do not meet the standards, as that is money wasted. Noticing that there isn’t as much presence at residents meetings but it’s because of the lack of resources.

BO yes that is reflected in our surgeries too.

NS: Why do we have so many cameras, if we had less cameras and spent that money on officers things would more likely be solved.

TM: I’m surprised about the amount of police covering the town centre. Cuckooing and drug dealing is an issue.

MR: Yes this is a multi-agency approach to identify and also prevent this from happening.

BO: The 101 system, the waiting time is sometimes horrendous.

MR: Yes I’ve had to report off duty and call the number and I also agree, it can be a long wait and quite frustrating.

There is a facility to report online for those who have access with it.

MR: BO you mentioned travellers, we moved some from Delapre Rec this morning. They made their way around the town, they have been served their notices and escorted out of the county today.

BO: Yes I spoke to Ruth Austen today and she said she hoped the issue had been dealt with and they’ve moved out of county.

TM: It used to be very different to this with an officer living in the area, but that was a long time ago.

AT: The problem now is that the population has gone up and the numbers of officers have gone down.

GS: Are you responsible for these tented encampments?

MR: It isn’t a crime to sleep rough and if they are on private land then we cannot move them if the tenant is happy for them to be there.

BO: Yes Geoff is talking about the tents at all saints church, Vicar is happy for them to be there.

AT: Yes and near the old bus station and near Iceland etc.

JW: The outreach team work with these people all the time but many do not want to change their lifestyle.

MR: We run a campaign called Don’t Kill With Kindness, unfortunately these people on the streets have addictions, often this is where their money goes and this can lead to even further issues.

GS: Does the litter that they leave come into this?

BO: Yes, the wardens deal with this.

MR: They can’t get ticketed or fines as they have no income to pay these.

BO: One officer and one PCSO is at what times?

MR: It is 8am until midnight, 7 days a week all year round.

BO: I would like you to come back with some figures, what would we like?

BN: Council tax has gone up, police is 10.9% and I don’t think we’re going to get our value for money. My concern is that the three main focuses are burglary but I see no focus on speeding which is happening. We could look at some schemes where people know that they may be caught. I’m still under the impression none of our speed cameras are on.

BO: I agree, speeding is a problem and I think prevention is the best way to go about it.

I heard PCC Stephen Mould said there was 100 police officers coming into the county.

MR: There will be, but they take time to train and spread over the county it isn’t a huge number.

BN: Is there any evidence that the police are looking at a speeding campaign?

MR: Periodically there are speeding campaigns, this is over summer/Christmas and they target specific areas over the town. This is something you could report to your local team and they could turn up with the speed gun.

ACTION: Invite Mike Rogers to the next forum – 18^th July.