Summer in the city?

Well, is summer here early this year - or will this be our summer?

At least it is more pleasant for the team as they pound the streets of St Marys and Northam, back in shirt sleeves rather than fleeces. Of course everyone else thinks summer is here as well, and we have had several calls this week regarding nuisances in the parks. One of the main complaints is people using barbecues. I have not been able to find that this is against any bye law and it seems people can use barbecues in the parks, unless someone can tell me otherwise? However, of course if you have the barbecue directly on the grass, and damage the grass, then this can be considered criminal damage. There are also littering offences if people do not tidy up behind themselves, and of course the parks are within the drinking control zone for Southampton, so alcohol can be confiscated and poured away if there is any anti-social behaviour linked to the drinking. We do this as a matter of course on Friday and Saturday nights in the City Centre.

Another complaint is youths playing football in the cricket squares - funnily enough the byelaws do cover this, in that people are not allowed to play another sport in an area set aside for a particular sport, although of course the byelaws do not write it a plain as that. City patrol can also use these powers and patrol the parks as well as ourselves.

Crimes wise, vehicle crime for Northam and St Marys is still quite low - 9 reports in the last month compared to 15 over the same period last year. However, cycle thefts are on the increase throughout the city. If you have a bike, please ensure you secure it properly, get it security marked, and if it is an expensive bike - which is more likely to be unique - then take a photo. If it is stolen we can circulate the photo.

One of the things I have not mentioned much before in the blog is our work with older, troublesome teenagers who are leaving school. Although it is difficult for us to engage with many of them, because they do not want to be engaged with, we have managed a few introductions in the past. This year PCSOs Mark Reynolds and Ed Wiggans, and PC Phil Warwick have been assisting youngsters to get to college, into other post-school training and, in some cases, introductions for jobs. Its up to the young people themselves after that to do their bit. We are currently waiting for the results of a few referrals to Sparsholt College and I have a meeting with one young person next week when they attend the Youth Offending Team for their supervision work. It is an area I think we can develop, and if we can get a few results, then we may get the trust of others and help them towards work rather than accepting a life of crime.

You may recall a few weeks ago I mentioned we had gained an interim anti-social behaviour order against a young person, and almost the next day they were arrested for breaching the ASBO, well they are in custody again for breaching it.

Junior PCSOs get recognition

On March 11 I attended the Royal National Hotel in London for the second Connecting People awards. It is a prestigous event, attended by over 550 guests, and organised by Northern, Midlands and Southern Housing magazines in conjunction with TPAS, and rewards tenants and people who work in communities across England.

I attended with Swaythling Housing Association who submitted the Junior PCSO scheme for the awards. Swaythling supported us in the first sheme and Lumpy lane, Northam, as they are the landlord and this was the first scheme of its type when PCSO Mark Reynolds started it in October 2007. A month later PCSO Jade Missen started a scheme in Chapel, and Swaything again helped and supported the scheme. Swaythling have continued their involvement and supported the schemes financially on events like the Junior PCSO Xmas parties.

There were over 100 submissions for the awards in our category of community involvement and we were chosen as one of the five nominations shortlisted for the awards ceremony in London. Unfortunately we did not win, but to be in the final five was a great achievement. PCSO Mark Reynolds and PCSO Fiona Oates (who now runs the Chapel scheme) came with me and Swaythling were represented by Steph Binks, Cita jagot and Jade Missen, who, unfortunately for my team, went to work for Swaythling as their development officer following her excellent work in Chapel as a PCSO. Swaythling have since started further schemes in one of their developments in Amesbury, and of course within the Constabulary the schemes are spreading Junior PCSOs now in Gosport, Aldershot and other areas.

We were not the only nomination from Southampton, indeed Northam. Carl Collins, who is the Chair of the Northam Tenants and Residents Association was nominated in the Tenant of the Year category for his great work in Northam. Unfortunately for Carl, he was not selected as a winner either, however its tremendous that of the two nominations from Southampton, both involved Northam.

On the enforcement front, we are still plugging away at cycling on the pavement tickets and parking obstructions in Northam Estate, Golden grove and Deanery Estate. PC Phil Warwick has had a good result with the obstruction on Northam. It has been identified that staff from businesses in Princes St regularly park on the estate, using up valuable spaces and causing concern to residents and Phil has been working with parking services of the council who are negociating a deal with the company for an annual discounted parking rate at the local SCC car park, so that may ease some of the problems.

Finally, meetings wise this week, I atteded a Safety in the Parks meeting on Thursday. This is a group that meets every three months to discuss park security. Unfortunately the parks do get a bad name at times, but with basic security, like not walking through there alone, tha parks are as safe as the streets. A lot of work has been completed at Hoglands Park with extra lighting on the main thoroughfares and the pavillions have been renovated and are used as youth venues severas evenings a week now. During the school holiday periods from Easter to October, we have a police gazebo near the skate board park for the first few days of the holidays to talk to youngsters about basic security, not leaving items on display, unnattended bags etc, as well as post coding bikes, boards and mobiles. This seems to work quite well and we have City patrol and other agencies to attend aswell.

Watching the detectives

Hello again,

Well this week I have been on a CID attachment at Shirley. We do not have a CID team at Southampton Central, and the officers from Shirley cover my area. I have been shadowing the Detective Sergeants to see what they do and how they do it.

It is very different from my normal role. On Monday they had new incidents come in from the weekend, and allocated detectives to each investigation/job. One of the jobs was the assault on the Cardiff City football supporter, which has been the subject of considerable media coverage. The police media department released certain information to the press and it is surprising how that information then appears in the media. However, the publicity has produced quite a bit of information from the public and the team are working well on the enquiries. This job was particularly interesting for me as this is within my area, and as you may have previously read, there has been quite a bit of activity within the Chapel area recently.

These crimes are on top of several long term, in depth investigations that CID are dealing with. Certainly in real life things are not as quick as they are dealt with in The Bill on TV.

Back to my patch. The vehicle crime spree in Chapel seems to have stopped - no vehicle crime reported there for a month. It is still reduced in Northam and the other areas of St Marys as well.

Last week we gained an ASBO on a youth, one of the conditions was not to enter Northam and most of St Marys. Well, the youth was arrested on Monday when he breached the ASBO and was found inside the area he is excluded from. PC Dave Houghton is now working with the council for an ASBO on another youngster.

Anyway, back to the grindstone. Don't forget to leave a comment if there's something you want to say - I've managed to answer a couple that were waiting for me, as well as writing this update for you.