Hello again,
First of all an update on the vehicle crime in the Chapel area - thankfully there have only been 2 further reports for Chapel, although Ocean Village seems to be suffering now. It seems a team are making their way around the waterfront. Ocean Village is managed by my colleague Sgt Richard McWilliam and he is looking at ways to reduce the crime - and probably send it back to me! In the meantime we are putting up posters to remind residents to remove items from their cars and the management group of the Chapel Development are looking at some 'target hardening' ideas. We have had a few leads and our tasking team will be taking these forward.
As I write this on Thursday, we have the Chapel Residents meeting tonight, so car crime will be a topic to be discussed. We also have the Northam Tenants and Residents meeting on Monday 2 February. We attend all the residents meetings we can. That gives people the opportunity to tell us their concerns and get to know us. Police sometimes only attend these sort of meetings when asked - and if that happens you know for sure there is some stuff to come flying at you. By attending them all, it lets us know residents feelings a lot earlier and we can start doing something about the problems before they get out of hand. Last night I had the Stadium Monitoring Group. This is a community group which meets at St Marys Stadium with Saints to discuss issues relating to the stadium and the effect it has within the community. They are held every three months or so and are very useful.
The Police surgery that PCSO Kelly Drodge recently held at St Marys School went well and we have some more surgeries planned:
Northam Housing Office - every Thursday 3-4pm
St Marys School 6 February and 6 March 9-10am
Tescos Express St Mary St 2 February and 2 March 5.30-7.30pm
We are also looking at holding surgeries at the Halls of Residence and PCSO Mike Kesslar-Lyne is arraging this with the Halls managers.
Finally, you are probably aware of the Constabulary's Operation Nemesis - The burglar's worst enemy, the victim's best friend. Fortunately we do not suffer from too many burglaries in our patch, but for more information please log on to the Constabulary website.
Cheers
Dick
Friday, 30 January 2009
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
Good news and bad news
This week's blog is a bit earlier as my shifts mean I am off Thursday and Friday - time to get some stuff done in the garden and visit my grandchildren!
First of all, thanks to Ian and David for their comments - much appreciated, and I will try to keep the blog interesting and relevant.
Some good and some bad news this week.
First the bad news for Chapel. Since the beginning of the year there have been eight reports of vehicle crime in the Chapel development, Andersons Road area. Most of the cars that have been attacked were in the underground car parks. It may be that residents feel their cars are safer there and as such leave items on display. If thieves think there are easy pickings, they will break in to get them, and unfortunately that is what has happened. Residents are reminded not to leave items on display. I have had a chat with the management company, and we arranged a visit by our Crime Prevention Officer - John Bailey - who has advised of some improvements. The management company has sent a letter to all residents. PCSO Fiona Oates who looks after Chapel has also been down with some posters to remind people about vehicle security as well. There have also been seven boats broken into in American Wharf, and as that is very close to Chapel, it may be the same group of people responsible. On the good news for vehicle crime - these are the only vehicle crime reported in Northam and St Marys - normally it is spread all over.
On to cycle offences - the team have been busy. Since January 14 we have issued 13 fixed penalty notices for cycling on the pavement. Four of those were in Chapel Road where the member of staff from City College posted the comment on the blog mentioning it. Northam Road is the favourite place at the moment with 8 tickets since the 14th.
Another complaint from residents is the vehicle obstruction caused by thoughtless, or careless, parking in Northam Estate, Deanery Estate and Golden Grove. So far this year we have issued six tickets for the Deanery, 3 for Northam and 7 for Golden Grove.
Finally, we have just received the results of the Safer Neighbourhoods survey for October to December last year for Northam. This is where the Constabulary phones a number of residents to get their views on local policing. I was quite pleased with the results, here a few:
The four greatest concerns for residents are parking problems, teenangers hanging around the streets, people using or dealing drugs and vandalism/graffiti. Of those concerns, 3 are our community priorities and the other is one of our concerns, recently removed as a priority, which goes to show we are looking the things that concern residents. You can read more about our priorities by visiting the website (www.hampshire.police.uk) and either entering your postcode or clicking through the map to our pages.
As always, please send me any comments you have on the blog, or any concerns you wish us to work on.
Cheers
Dick
First of all, thanks to Ian and David for their comments - much appreciated, and I will try to keep the blog interesting and relevant.
Some good and some bad news this week.
First the bad news for Chapel. Since the beginning of the year there have been eight reports of vehicle crime in the Chapel development, Andersons Road area. Most of the cars that have been attacked were in the underground car parks. It may be that residents feel their cars are safer there and as such leave items on display. If thieves think there are easy pickings, they will break in to get them, and unfortunately that is what has happened. Residents are reminded not to leave items on display. I have had a chat with the management company, and we arranged a visit by our Crime Prevention Officer - John Bailey - who has advised of some improvements. The management company has sent a letter to all residents. PCSO Fiona Oates who looks after Chapel has also been down with some posters to remind people about vehicle security as well. There have also been seven boats broken into in American Wharf, and as that is very close to Chapel, it may be the same group of people responsible. On the good news for vehicle crime - these are the only vehicle crime reported in Northam and St Marys - normally it is spread all over.
On to cycle offences - the team have been busy. Since January 14 we have issued 13 fixed penalty notices for cycling on the pavement. Four of those were in Chapel Road where the member of staff from City College posted the comment on the blog mentioning it. Northam Road is the favourite place at the moment with 8 tickets since the 14th.
Another complaint from residents is the vehicle obstruction caused by thoughtless, or careless, parking in Northam Estate, Deanery Estate and Golden Grove. So far this year we have issued six tickets for the Deanery, 3 for Northam and 7 for Golden Grove.
Finally, we have just received the results of the Safer Neighbourhoods survey for October to December last year for Northam. This is where the Constabulary phones a number of residents to get their views on local policing. I was quite pleased with the results, here a few:
- 49% of residents said they were aware of a Safer Neighbourhood Team working in Northam.
- 33% said they saw an officer daily, 36% said they saw one once or twice a week.
- 47% said they were completely, very or fairly satisfied with level of foot patrols.
- 61% said they did not know how to contact their Safer neighbourhood Team, yet 56% said they felt they had an opportunity to make the Safer Neighbourhood Team aware of their concerns - a bit confusing that one!
- 88% felt they were very or fairly safe walking alone during the day, compared to 44% at night.
- 66% said that taking everything into account they felt the police are doing a good or excellent job in Northam
The four greatest concerns for residents are parking problems, teenangers hanging around the streets, people using or dealing drugs and vandalism/graffiti. Of those concerns, 3 are our community priorities and the other is one of our concerns, recently removed as a priority, which goes to show we are looking the things that concern residents. You can read more about our priorities by visiting the website (www.hampshire.police.uk) and either entering your postcode or clicking through the map to our pages.
As always, please send me any comments you have on the blog, or any concerns you wish us to work on.
Cheers
Dick
Friday, 16 January 2009
Cyclists, meetings and action... another busy week
Hello again,
First off all, the cycling on the pavement offences - we have issued five fixed penalty notices this week and will continue to target offenders. Please let me know of any areas you find a problem.
Partnership working is a large part of safer neighbourhoods, and that means quite a lot of meetings. This week I had an Anti-Social Behaviour Panel meeting with the council on Monday regarding a tenant, also at the meeting were representatives from homelessness, housing, council solicitor, mental health team, environmental health and it was decided to pursue eviction.
On Tuesday had a meeting with Swaythling Housing about neighbour problems, Thursday I had 3meetings. The first was the Northam Community Link AGM, followed by an anti-social behaviour conference for a youth. At that meeting were representatives from community safety, youth offending team, social services, education and it was decided to apply for an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO)for the youth. There is a lot of work that goes into the ASBO application. One of my team, PC Phil Warwick has spent over a week, stuck at the computer, getting details of each incident for the ASBO schedule.
Finally on Thursday was the management meeting of the Northam 521/City Reach youth projects. Again, we tend to think that youth clubs just plod along, but the management group have to look after all the financial side, and as both groups rely on funding, some of the team spend days and days applying for funding and are currently finalising a bid to the lottery.
Then Friday I have the Chapel development charter meeting. The charter is a document that shows the standards of service that each agency will agree to provide. Those meetings are just mine. Other things my team have done this week are:
The three Junior PCSO schemes have all had an event,
PC Simon Bradshaw completed a joint visit with the housing manager to a flat to advise the tenants of their obligations under their tenancy agreement - again anti social behaviour/noise etc - so it looks like there will be action there.
PCSO Mark Reynolds is meeting reps from the Rainbow Project and doing a home visits at one of the Rainbow homes - Rainbow provide accomodation for vulnerable youngsters and we have two houses in Northam.
PCSO Mike Kesslar-Lyne has visited a family that have moved into our patch and have a reputation for anti-social behaviour, so we visit and let them know we are aware they have moved in.
PC Caroline Woodfield has visited a youth who is on an Acceptable Behaviour Contract (ABC)-we visit them every week and try to help the child keep out of trouble and support the parents.
PCSO Kelly Drodge has held her first Police surgery at St Marys Primary School and we had the weekly police surgery at Northam Housing office on Thursday.
I am sure there is more that I have missed, but as you see, we keep quite busy.
See you next week.
Cheers
Dick
First off all, the cycling on the pavement offences - we have issued five fixed penalty notices this week and will continue to target offenders. Please let me know of any areas you find a problem.
Partnership working is a large part of safer neighbourhoods, and that means quite a lot of meetings. This week I had an Anti-Social Behaviour Panel meeting with the council on Monday regarding a tenant, also at the meeting were representatives from homelessness, housing, council solicitor, mental health team, environmental health and it was decided to pursue eviction.
On Tuesday had a meeting with Swaythling Housing about neighbour problems, Thursday I had 3meetings. The first was the Northam Community Link AGM, followed by an anti-social behaviour conference for a youth. At that meeting were representatives from community safety, youth offending team, social services, education and it was decided to apply for an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO)for the youth. There is a lot of work that goes into the ASBO application. One of my team, PC Phil Warwick has spent over a week, stuck at the computer, getting details of each incident for the ASBO schedule.
Finally on Thursday was the management meeting of the Northam 521/City Reach youth projects. Again, we tend to think that youth clubs just plod along, but the management group have to look after all the financial side, and as both groups rely on funding, some of the team spend days and days applying for funding and are currently finalising a bid to the lottery.
Then Friday I have the Chapel development charter meeting. The charter is a document that shows the standards of service that each agency will agree to provide. Those meetings are just mine. Other things my team have done this week are:
The three Junior PCSO schemes have all had an event,
PC Simon Bradshaw completed a joint visit with the housing manager to a flat to advise the tenants of their obligations under their tenancy agreement - again anti social behaviour/noise etc - so it looks like there will be action there.
PCSO Mark Reynolds is meeting reps from the Rainbow Project and doing a home visits at one of the Rainbow homes - Rainbow provide accomodation for vulnerable youngsters and we have two houses in Northam.
PCSO Mike Kesslar-Lyne has visited a family that have moved into our patch and have a reputation for anti-social behaviour, so we visit and let them know we are aware they have moved in.
PC Caroline Woodfield has visited a youth who is on an Acceptable Behaviour Contract (ABC)-we visit them every week and try to help the child keep out of trouble and support the parents.
PCSO Kelly Drodge has held her first Police surgery at St Marys Primary School and we had the weekly police surgery at Northam Housing office on Thursday.
I am sure there is more that I have missed, but as you see, we keep quite busy.
See you next week.
Cheers
Dick
Friday, 9 January 2009
Hello again, Its been a busy week trying to catch up from the Christmas and New Year period. As pointed out by the comment from Jacqui - the list of officers for Northam is a bit ouf date, so here is the current line up.
St Marys
PC Simon Bradshaw,
PC Caroline Woodfield
PC Steve McKenzie
PCSO Fiona Oates
PCSO Kelly Drodge
PCSO David Wright
PCSO Mike Kesslar-Lyne
Northam
PC Phil Warwick
PC Dave Houghton
PCSO Mark Reynolds
PCSO Ed Wiggans
We are all contactable through the webpage
Cycling on the pavement is an ongoing issue and this week we have given one £30 ticket in St Mary Street and 2 other offenders have been reported for summons and files sent off to the Crown Prosecution Service. Please let us know of any hotspots for this annoying offence and we will get officers down there.
With the Police Community Support Officer numbers being up to strength now, we are planning to hold more police surgeries, where we have a stand and people can come with their problems and concerns. We plan surgeries at Tesco Express in St Mary Street at 5.30pm - 7.30pm on February 2, and at St Marys School 9am - 10 am on January 16.
Although we do not suffer from too many burglaries in our patch, we want to reduce what we do get. The team are getting around all of the businesses in our beats to get contact details and email addresses so we can quickly get information out to businesses if we need to.
The team are starting the Junior PCSO schemes for Lumpy Lane, Deanery and Chapel again, with the dog section coming to see the group in Chapel next week. These schemes have been really good at engaging the kids and helping keep their areas tidy.
Finally, and good news while it lasts - reported vehicle crime in Northam and St Marys is currently at 11 for the last rolling month. This is down from over 40 a month in the summer. There have been several arrests and we have been leafletting cars to warn people about leaving stuff on show, so it would be nice to think we can keep the figures low - we will try…
Anyway, I hope you find this interesting, let me know, send a few comments, anything else you would find useful?
Cheers
Dick
St Marys
PC Simon Bradshaw,
PC Caroline Woodfield
PC Steve McKenzie
PCSO Fiona Oates
PCSO Kelly Drodge
PCSO David Wright
PCSO Mike Kesslar-Lyne
Northam
PC Phil Warwick
PC Dave Houghton
PCSO Mark Reynolds
PCSO Ed Wiggans
We are all contactable through the webpage
Cycling on the pavement is an ongoing issue and this week we have given one £30 ticket in St Mary Street and 2 other offenders have been reported for summons and files sent off to the Crown Prosecution Service. Please let us know of any hotspots for this annoying offence and we will get officers down there.
With the Police Community Support Officer numbers being up to strength now, we are planning to hold more police surgeries, where we have a stand and people can come with their problems and concerns. We plan surgeries at Tesco Express in St Mary Street at 5.30pm - 7.30pm on February 2, and at St Marys School 9am - 10 am on January 16.
Although we do not suffer from too many burglaries in our patch, we want to reduce what we do get. The team are getting around all of the businesses in our beats to get contact details and email addresses so we can quickly get information out to businesses if we need to.
The team are starting the Junior PCSO schemes for Lumpy Lane, Deanery and Chapel again, with the dog section coming to see the group in Chapel next week. These schemes have been really good at engaging the kids and helping keep their areas tidy.
Finally, and good news while it lasts - reported vehicle crime in Northam and St Marys is currently at 11 for the last rolling month. This is down from over 40 a month in the summer. There have been several arrests and we have been leafletting cars to warn people about leaving stuff on show, so it would be nice to think we can keep the figures low - we will try…
Anyway, I hope you find this interesting, let me know, send a few comments, anything else you would find useful?
Cheers
Dick
Monday, 5 January 2009
A weekend of nights
Happy New Year, especially to Anon - my blogs first comment - and yes its good to be back!
Well, I started writing this update very early on Saturday morning because I have been on nights. The four Safer Neighbourhood Team Sergeants at Southampton Central and the two Probationer Development Unit sergeants take it in turns to manage the Night Time Economy Operations on Friday and Saturday nights in Southampton City Centre. This weekend was my turn. We always hope for uneventful nights, but often end up with numerous prisoners and incidents throughout the city centre until three or four in the morning. My duty finishes at 6:30am after collating all the results and checking files for all the prisoners. It can get very hectic, with many disturbances as alcohol gets the better of some revellers. Some evenings the cells fill up very quickly here at Southampton, and we send prisoners off to Lyndhurst, Fareham and sometimes as far as Aldershot.
However, tonight has been really good for us - but not so good for the owners of the night time venues! It’s the first weekend after Christmas and the New Year and it seems very few people have any money left! The city centre was empty compared to most weekends, and some venues closed early. Its also been very cold, not nice for us, but of course the revellers never seem to feel the cold! We had one arrest, quite early at 9.30pm, for drunk and disorderly. That person will get a free nights B&B and be sorted out during the morning.
Of course doing this operation means I do not see my team for a few days, but I still have all their work to manage. We are preparing Anti-Social Behavior Order (ASBO) paperwork for one youth, and this takes a couple of days to prepare and ensure the paperwork is suitable for the council lawyers to take to a confernce with a whole host of agencies to get the agreement to go to court to apply for the ASBO.
We are continually getting information about drugs activity within St Marys. Drug warrants have recently been completed in Holyrood estate and Golden Grove area, and we will continue to work on intelligence that is passed to us and patrol the areas that are highlighted.
We have 2 new PCSOs, David Wright and Fiona Oates. They will both patrol St Marys and are currently having their 5 weeks of tutoring by PCSOs Mark Reynolds and Ed Wiggans. The PCSOs are enforcing the 'no cycling on pavements' laws in Northam Rd, St Mary St and Six Dials.
Check out the web pages for Northam and St Marys to see the rest of the work we are currently engaged in and the community priorities.
St Mary's
Northam
Finally, I want the blog to work and engage the people of Northam and St Marys, those who live there and those who work or have any other interest here. Please contribute to the blog, what are your concerns, where we can improve and even let me know what we are doing well (hopefully).
Till next time……
Cheers
Dick
Well, I started writing this update very early on Saturday morning because I have been on nights. The four Safer Neighbourhood Team Sergeants at Southampton Central and the two Probationer Development Unit sergeants take it in turns to manage the Night Time Economy Operations on Friday and Saturday nights in Southampton City Centre. This weekend was my turn. We always hope for uneventful nights, but often end up with numerous prisoners and incidents throughout the city centre until three or four in the morning. My duty finishes at 6:30am after collating all the results and checking files for all the prisoners. It can get very hectic, with many disturbances as alcohol gets the better of some revellers. Some evenings the cells fill up very quickly here at Southampton, and we send prisoners off to Lyndhurst, Fareham and sometimes as far as Aldershot.
However, tonight has been really good for us - but not so good for the owners of the night time venues! It’s the first weekend after Christmas and the New Year and it seems very few people have any money left! The city centre was empty compared to most weekends, and some venues closed early. Its also been very cold, not nice for us, but of course the revellers never seem to feel the cold! We had one arrest, quite early at 9.30pm, for drunk and disorderly. That person will get a free nights B&B and be sorted out during the morning.
Of course doing this operation means I do not see my team for a few days, but I still have all their work to manage. We are preparing Anti-Social Behavior Order (ASBO) paperwork for one youth, and this takes a couple of days to prepare and ensure the paperwork is suitable for the council lawyers to take to a confernce with a whole host of agencies to get the agreement to go to court to apply for the ASBO.
We are continually getting information about drugs activity within St Marys. Drug warrants have recently been completed in Holyrood estate and Golden Grove area, and we will continue to work on intelligence that is passed to us and patrol the areas that are highlighted.
We have 2 new PCSOs, David Wright and Fiona Oates. They will both patrol St Marys and are currently having their 5 weeks of tutoring by PCSOs Mark Reynolds and Ed Wiggans. The PCSOs are enforcing the 'no cycling on pavements' laws in Northam Rd, St Mary St and Six Dials.
Check out the web pages for Northam and St Marys to see the rest of the work we are currently engaged in and the community priorities.
St Mary's
Northam
Finally, I want the blog to work and engage the people of Northam and St Marys, those who live there and those who work or have any other interest here. Please contribute to the blog, what are your concerns, where we can improve and even let me know what we are doing well (hopefully).
Till next time……
Cheers
Dick
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