Hello again,
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I am back from leave and was refreshed until, like many people nowadays, I opened my email account to find over 150 emails waiting for me. I am on day three now and just finished getting through them. The only problem is that when I do reply to people - they reply again!
In fact I did have to come in on my leave. Due to the incident in Derby Rd on the evening of 20 Feb, which has been well publicised, I was called in on Saturday, February 21 to help with the community impact of the incident. I assisted Insp Kirby, my supervisor, who is responsible for the policing of Northam, Newtown and St Marys, with getting an operation order together and arranging officers to cover high visibility patrols for several nights within the Newtown area. There have been a variety of meetings that will hopefully reduce tensions and the chance of further incidents.
We all have to keep up to date with our training as well, so on Monday it was my annual personal safety training day. This training has changed over time and now spends longer on the actual laws that allow us to use the power of force, and also body pressure points so we can get people to move, or release ourselves if we do end up in a fight. Next week I have a CID attachment for a week, which all the sergeants have to do. CID is not really my thing; I much prefer the interaction and problem solving stuff involved with community policing, but again its something we have to do.
Back to Northam and St Marys.
On February 25, PC Caroline Woodield, one of my officers for St Marys, arranged and executed a drug warrant in James St, St Marys, following considerable information. As a result some drugs were recovered and one man was charged. When we execute warrants we produce leaflets and distribute them around the immideiate area and door knock the area to let people know what we have done and to see if they have any concerns for us. We have found that really good in letting people know what is happening, particularly as a lot of the information comes from the local community. The warrant was well timed as we had the St Marys Tenants' and Residents' meeting last night, so I was able to update them. These meetings are also the place where we discuss our community priorities with the community, to identify what they want us to deal with.
On Tuesday we had the Kingsland Patch Chat - this is another meeting where we identify issues, not just for the police, but for all the agencies that attend. Present at these meetings are Housing, Neighbourhood wardens, City Patrol, residents' groups representatives, youth group leaders and Open Spaces. We discuss items from drug dealing to broken paving slabs - the aim is to enable all the agencies to identify the issues that concern residents and update them on what we are all doing.
Last week the planned clean ups in Lumpy Lane and Chapel areas went well, with support from Swaythling Housing. We hope these will be regular events.
Just to remind people, we have the following police surgeries planned:
Northam Housing Office: every Thursday 3-4pm
St Marys School: 6 March 9-10am
Tescos Express St Mary Street: 2 March 5.30-7.30pm
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Friday, 13 February 2009
Thanks for visiting
Sgt Partridge is away from work until February 24.
In the meantime take a look at the policing pledge, which sets out the service that all police forces nationally have agreed and signed up to.
Or read about Operation Nemesis, our force wide campaign to reduce burglary.
Please feel free to continue to make comments on the blog - if I can't find someone appropriate to answer while Dick is away, I'll make sure he responds when he returns.
Thanks
In the meantime take a look at the policing pledge, which sets out the service that all police forces nationally have agreed and signed up to.
Or read about Operation Nemesis, our force wide campaign to reduce burglary.
Please feel free to continue to make comments on the blog - if I can't find someone appropriate to answer while Dick is away, I'll make sure he responds when he returns.
Thanks
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Lets get cleaning!
Hope you have not been affected by the snow too much - we all say we'd like to see snow at winter, but when it comes there's havoc.
First of all, vehicle crime. Well, at last weeks Chapel Residents Group - predictably there was a lot of concern about vehicle crime within the development. We have continued with our posters and writing to people who we see have left items on display. We tried to reassure the residents of what we are doing, and fortunately since then there have been no further reprots of vehicle crime in Chapel, in fact we have only had three reports in the last week - two in Richmond St and one on Northam estate. The one is Northam is the first report of vehcile crime in Northam in 2009 - outstanding - have to check who is locked up in prison!
We work very closely with other agencies as I have mentioned before, and when we set up the Junior PCSO schemes in Lumpy Lane and Chapel, we got great support from Swaythling Housing association. They recently submitted the scheme for TPAS Connecting People Awards and we have been selected on a shortlist of five schemes from over 100 applications. A fantastic result and recognition of not only the idea of Junior PCSO but also the joint working. The ceremony is in London on 11 March so fingers crossed.
Still with Swaythling Housing, we are assisting them with clean up days in the Chapel development (17 Feb), and Lumpy Lane (19 Feb), where we hope to get residents and children to come out and help clean up the areas for a few hours and generate some community spirit. The neighbourhood wardens and a few other agencies will also be involved.
Another planned clean up is for the footbridge from Chapel to Deanery. The Junior PCSOs painted some of it last year, with help from the council. Following reports of anti-social behaviour from some of the students at the nearby Halls of Residence that use the bridge there are volunteers from the halls coming out to paint and clean up the bridge. Again we will support with some of the juniors, and hopefully a few residents to make a difference. Hopefully the students will take some ownership and consider the local residents on their way to and fro the city centre nightspots.
Finally, I took part in Operation Nicole yesterday. This is a table top exercise, held at Netley Police HQ, involving members of the community where we simulate a terrorist incident in Southampton. It went really well, with the members of the community acting as the police and making the decisions of what they felt should happen. Many of them commented on the problems of what response to take to the constant feed of information and stated how difficult a job the police have when faced with this sort of incident, and how we cannot tell the community everything that is happening. Equally, we found it very useful regarding the expectations of the community, and that actually, even if only a little information is released to the community, if it is done properly, then they feel very much in the loop and therefore part of the solution.
Till next time
Cheers
Dick
First of all, vehicle crime. Well, at last weeks Chapel Residents Group - predictably there was a lot of concern about vehicle crime within the development. We have continued with our posters and writing to people who we see have left items on display. We tried to reassure the residents of what we are doing, and fortunately since then there have been no further reprots of vehicle crime in Chapel, in fact we have only had three reports in the last week - two in Richmond St and one on Northam estate. The one is Northam is the first report of vehcile crime in Northam in 2009 - outstanding - have to check who is locked up in prison!
We work very closely with other agencies as I have mentioned before, and when we set up the Junior PCSO schemes in Lumpy Lane and Chapel, we got great support from Swaythling Housing association. They recently submitted the scheme for TPAS Connecting People Awards and we have been selected on a shortlist of five schemes from over 100 applications. A fantastic result and recognition of not only the idea of Junior PCSO but also the joint working. The ceremony is in London on 11 March so fingers crossed.
Still with Swaythling Housing, we are assisting them with clean up days in the Chapel development (17 Feb), and Lumpy Lane (19 Feb), where we hope to get residents and children to come out and help clean up the areas for a few hours and generate some community spirit. The neighbourhood wardens and a few other agencies will also be involved.
Another planned clean up is for the footbridge from Chapel to Deanery. The Junior PCSOs painted some of it last year, with help from the council. Following reports of anti-social behaviour from some of the students at the nearby Halls of Residence that use the bridge there are volunteers from the halls coming out to paint and clean up the bridge. Again we will support with some of the juniors, and hopefully a few residents to make a difference. Hopefully the students will take some ownership and consider the local residents on their way to and fro the city centre nightspots.
Finally, I took part in Operation Nicole yesterday. This is a table top exercise, held at Netley Police HQ, involving members of the community where we simulate a terrorist incident in Southampton. It went really well, with the members of the community acting as the police and making the decisions of what they felt should happen. Many of them commented on the problems of what response to take to the constant feed of information and stated how difficult a job the police have when faced with this sort of incident, and how we cannot tell the community everything that is happening. Equally, we found it very useful regarding the expectations of the community, and that actually, even if only a little information is released to the community, if it is done properly, then they feel very much in the loop and therefore part of the solution.
Till next time
Cheers
Dick
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