Well after the excitement of Twickenham, we are back to our routine job again. The tag rugby sessions are continuing and we are looking at progressing the project with the RFU to include youth clubs and will be aiming to have holiday sessions next year, which will be called the Southampton Street Rugby Project.
An interesting point this week is the latest media release of details of the Policing Pledge. I am confident that the Safer Neighbourhood Team covering Northam and St Marys meets the pledge, with the only exception being the monthly meeting in St Marys. There appears to be some discussion as to what the Pledge means about monthly contact/meetings to identify and set community priorities. Being a simple soul, I take it as a meeting the Police would hold in each area, once a month where the public are invited to come along and discuss their issues, identify the top three and then the Police, with other agencies, will tell you what we intend to do about them. Next month, we update the community and go through the same thing again. This happens in Northam where we attend the Northam Tenants and Residents Association meeting one month where we have a police slot, and then hold a public police meeting the next month. It seems to work quite well, and although not a lot of people turn up, we can only work with those that do attend. Councillor Stephen Barnes-Andrews and SCC Housing officer Adam Cresser kindly come along to the monthly meetings and can take away any issues that apply to them. Once it’s all clarified we will introduce something similar to St Marys. Regarding the rest of the pledge - we are complying already.
You may remember the time capsule that the Junior PCSO schemes were doing for Black History Month. Well last week a bus-load of the juniors went to a 'secret location' and buried the time capsule. It will be recovered in 5 years time. The children really enjoyed themselves identifying their black heroes and it will be interesting to see what they all think of their current thoughts in 2014.
This week PC Jeanette Denton completed another Op Stop in St Mary St, this time issuing two fixed penalty notices for no seat belts. Unfortunately the operation was curtailed a bit when there was an accident in the area and all the officers went off to deal with that.
Finally, the Constabulary are recruiting again and are fast-tracking PCSOs. This is great for the PCSOs, however all of mine, bar one, are applying. I wish them all the very best, but hope they are not all successful otherwise I will be losing a great team!!
Cheers
Dick
Monday, 30 November 2009
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Swing low sweet……
What a day at Twickenham on Saturday. I am not really one to exaggerate, but it was awesome. The day went really well, and the 12 children form St Marys Primary and 10 children from Mount Pleasant really behaved themselves well and were a credit to their schools. Although it is arguable who enjoyed themselves the most - children or adults. The first good thing was that everyone turned up!! When we got to Twickenham we had a tour of the Rugby Museum and shops, then off to the changing rooms - just down the corridor from the England and Argentina dressing rooms. As we were going to do the guard of honour for when the teams came on to the pitch, we had a few practices of that - then on to the pitch. What a stadium, gasps from the kids, awesome, there were some of the team practicing on the pitch, particularly Jonny Wilkinson with his kicking. We went to the far side of the pitch where there were two tag pitches marked out, split the children into two teams from each school and played on the hallowed turf. Then swapped the teams around so both St Marys teams played both Mount Pleasant teams. There were several thousand spectators watching, the games were filmed and shown on the huge screens. Truly awesome. The children played really well and responded perfectly to their surroundings. The announcer had been telling everyone about our project and when the games finished and we started to make our way back to the changing rooms, the crowd were applauding, awesome. On the way back the President of the RFU - an ex-senior officer in the Police came to see us and shook everyone's hand. Then back to the changing rooms and some lunch, and all of a sudden it was 2.25pm - out for the Guard of Honour. Now the stadium was packed with 80,000 people, cheering and the place was buzzing - yes awesome. We stood there as the teams thundered out, the England team accompanied by tremendous flame throwers. The national Anthems were bellowed out - and that was our bit done. Back to the changing rooms, put on warm clothing and off to our places in the stands - front row no less - to watch the game. Fortunately England won - although not a convincing victory - and the try was scored right in front of us. All in all it was a fantastic day, enjoyed by everyone with loads of photos, videos and memories.
Well, back to real Police work for last week!! We had Holyrood tenants and Residents meeting last Monday which went well for us with no burning issues. Wednesday was the CTCG (Community Tasking and Co-Ordinating Group) meeting, which is a multi agency meeting covering the whole of the central area where we discuss the various concerns and troublesome people involved in anti - social behaviour. Thursday evening was the City Reach AGM which I missed due to training, but two of the team went.
This week we have the Northam patch chat on Wednesday and the Kingsland patch chat on Thursday. We also have the Council of Faiths Conference at the Vedic Temple in Radcliffe Rd on Thursday. I understand the Chief Constable is attending. On Friday we also have another meeting about the move to the new police station in Southern Rd which is going up quite quickly now. On top of all that we have our core work of the four junior PCSO schemes and of course now the tag rugby at St Marys school. To add even more woes to the team, we are introducing a new recording system for Neighbourhood teams called Safety Net, and the team are getting trained on that. We are going live with the system and it is also used by agencies so we can all add what we are doing about problems on one system.
Well, all the above is without actually dealing with any crime yet - and so I have been allocating crimes to the team to deal with as well. It certainly keeps us busy - but then that’s what we are paid for. That’s it for now… Swing low, sweet…………...
Well, back to real Police work for last week!! We had Holyrood tenants and Residents meeting last Monday which went well for us with no burning issues. Wednesday was the CTCG (Community Tasking and Co-Ordinating Group) meeting, which is a multi agency meeting covering the whole of the central area where we discuss the various concerns and troublesome people involved in anti - social behaviour. Thursday evening was the City Reach AGM which I missed due to training, but two of the team went.
This week we have the Northam patch chat on Wednesday and the Kingsland patch chat on Thursday. We also have the Council of Faiths Conference at the Vedic Temple in Radcliffe Rd on Thursday. I understand the Chief Constable is attending. On Friday we also have another meeting about the move to the new police station in Southern Rd which is going up quite quickly now. On top of all that we have our core work of the four junior PCSO schemes and of course now the tag rugby at St Marys school. To add even more woes to the team, we are introducing a new recording system for Neighbourhood teams called Safety Net, and the team are getting trained on that. We are going live with the system and it is also used by agencies so we can all add what we are doing about problems on one system.
Well, all the above is without actually dealing with any crime yet - and so I have been allocating crimes to the team to deal with as well. It certainly keeps us busy - but then that’s what we are paid for. That’s it for now… Swing low, sweet…………...
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Twickenham here we come!
Hello,
Well that’s Halloween and Bonfire Night out of the way. We had extra patrols out for the week, and completed joint patrols with Hampshire Fire and Rescue, Neighbourhood Wardens and City patrol. However, everything went off very quietly. There were very few incidents reported to us, although we dealt with some students setting off fireworks one night in Hoglands park and some youngsters having a camp fire in the copse of St Marys School playing field. Overall though, it went very well.
The big event this week of course is our trip to Twickenham with the tag rugby children from St Marys and Mt Pleasant schools. We have been completing two tag sessions a week to try to get them up to scratch - will have to see what happens come Saturday! The children are really enjoying themselves with the rugby although funnily enough I saw one of the Asian parents I know at the last session on Thursday and he said 'You will never have the Asian children playing rugby!!' - well come and have a look. We have children from various ethnic backgrounds taking part, their choice not ours, boys and girls, and yes - some are Asian. I do not think any of them had heard of Twickenham before last week but it will be a really good experience for all of us and after England lost to Australia at the weekend, we can hope for a win on Saturday.
We had the Police Public meeting at Northam last week and there were a distinct lack of problems identified, which was great. Drugs were raised again, some drug dealing from the foyer of Princes House, with users driving or walking in to Princes Court car park to collect the drugs. So we will ensure that area is patrolled more and try to gain more information. The traffic enforcement of the no left turn from Princes St into Northam Rd was kept as a priority. PC Dave Houghton has monitored that in the last week again and issued another two tickets. Other than that there were no other problems for us. The residents are happy that juvenile nuisance has continued to reduce, and decided to drop that as a priority - that’s about the first time for 10-years!!
This Monday evening is the Holyrood Residents and Tenants Group. Part of the meeting will be discussing the neighbourhood Charter. This is a document where each agency agree a level of service to the Estate. Police-wise, this is basically the Policing Pledge.
Finally, my new Inspector starts this week - Insp Doug Ashman joins us from HQ where he was staff officer to ACC Nicholson. Insp Ashman wasted no time in getting onto the streets and went out yesterday afternoon with PC Denton and a few others to St Mary St, where she has been arranging operations to target speeders, and issue tickets for any offences that are identified out there.
Finally, I have been looking through the statistics and am pleased to report that reported crime is still reducing in comparison to last year. I particularly look at Criminal damage, Vehicle crime and burglary as these offences directly affect the community. The figures are:
Vehicle crime: St Marys Oct 2008 -8.7 p/month, Oct 2009 - 7.3 p/month,
Northam Oct 2008 - 13.1 p/month Oct 2009 5.6 p/month
Damage : St Marys Oct 2008 - 16.8 p/month, Oct 2009 - 14.4 p/month,
Northam Oct 2008 - 14/9 p/month Oct 2009 9.4 p/month
Burglary : St Marys Oct 2008 - 8.2 p/month, Oct 2009 - 5.1 p/month,
Northam Oct 2008 - 7 p/month, Oct 2009 - 4.8 p/month
Long may it continue!
Cheers
Dick
Well that’s Halloween and Bonfire Night out of the way. We had extra patrols out for the week, and completed joint patrols with Hampshire Fire and Rescue, Neighbourhood Wardens and City patrol. However, everything went off very quietly. There were very few incidents reported to us, although we dealt with some students setting off fireworks one night in Hoglands park and some youngsters having a camp fire in the copse of St Marys School playing field. Overall though, it went very well.
The big event this week of course is our trip to Twickenham with the tag rugby children from St Marys and Mt Pleasant schools. We have been completing two tag sessions a week to try to get them up to scratch - will have to see what happens come Saturday! The children are really enjoying themselves with the rugby although funnily enough I saw one of the Asian parents I know at the last session on Thursday and he said 'You will never have the Asian children playing rugby!!' - well come and have a look. We have children from various ethnic backgrounds taking part, their choice not ours, boys and girls, and yes - some are Asian. I do not think any of them had heard of Twickenham before last week but it will be a really good experience for all of us and after England lost to Australia at the weekend, we can hope for a win on Saturday.
We had the Police Public meeting at Northam last week and there were a distinct lack of problems identified, which was great. Drugs were raised again, some drug dealing from the foyer of Princes House, with users driving or walking in to Princes Court car park to collect the drugs. So we will ensure that area is patrolled more and try to gain more information. The traffic enforcement of the no left turn from Princes St into Northam Rd was kept as a priority. PC Dave Houghton has monitored that in the last week again and issued another two tickets. Other than that there were no other problems for us. The residents are happy that juvenile nuisance has continued to reduce, and decided to drop that as a priority - that’s about the first time for 10-years!!
This Monday evening is the Holyrood Residents and Tenants Group. Part of the meeting will be discussing the neighbourhood Charter. This is a document where each agency agree a level of service to the Estate. Police-wise, this is basically the Policing Pledge.
Finally, my new Inspector starts this week - Insp Doug Ashman joins us from HQ where he was staff officer to ACC Nicholson. Insp Ashman wasted no time in getting onto the streets and went out yesterday afternoon with PC Denton and a few others to St Mary St, where she has been arranging operations to target speeders, and issue tickets for any offences that are identified out there.
Finally, I have been looking through the statistics and am pleased to report that reported crime is still reducing in comparison to last year. I particularly look at Criminal damage, Vehicle crime and burglary as these offences directly affect the community. The figures are:
Vehicle crime: St Marys Oct 2008 -8.7 p/month, Oct 2009 - 7.3 p/month,
Northam Oct 2008 - 13.1 p/month Oct 2009 5.6 p/month
Damage : St Marys Oct 2008 - 16.8 p/month, Oct 2009 - 14.4 p/month,
Northam Oct 2008 - 14/9 p/month Oct 2009 9.4 p/month
Burglary : St Marys Oct 2008 - 8.2 p/month, Oct 2009 - 5.1 p/month,
Northam Oct 2008 - 7 p/month, Oct 2009 - 4.8 p/month
Long may it continue!
Cheers
Dick
Monday, 2 November 2009
Leave, Junior PCSOs and Halloween
Hello,
Well I was fortunate to have some leave from last Friday until Thursday. A very nice break down to North Devon where I did a bit more of the South West Coastal path, had a few cream teas and sampled some Devon Ale, and of course a pint or two of cloudy scrumpy. Back to work now though.
Thursday was a good day. We took 20 of the Junior PCSO to Fairthorne Manor YMCA activity centre for the day. It was really good and the children behaved themselves - well most of them. The weather held out and children completed a team challenge, obstacle course and some rock climbing. We took the 20 children with the best attendance at the schemes. We were accompanied by a film crew from CASS productions who are making a film about the Junior PCSO Schemes, funding has been supplied by Swaythling Housing who have supported the schemes and been involved from the very start in 2007. This was the third day of filming. On Tuesday they filmed, amongst other things, a group of Junior PCSOs visiting St Marys fire station and on Wednesday we had a series of activities that the juniors often do, to be shown on the film. We were also very lucky that the Chief Constable came down to see the schemes and was interviewed by some of the children. We are looking forward to reviewing the footage and making sure we get the right pieces in the final film.
We have been busy in St Mary St again. PC Jeanette Denton attended the St Mary's Traders Association meeting on Monday - no major issues raised for us. At the meeting she was able to mention the traffic enforcement we have been doing following complaints of speeding in the street. The initiative involves a group of officers stopping cars, advising the drivers about the speed limit in St Marys Street and identifying and dealing with any offences that are disclosed. Each operation lasted about 1hour. This is the third, and each time we end up with about 8/9 fixed penalty tickets, mainly for not wearing seat belts. This has gone down really well with residents and the traders and we will be continuing the operations.
On Monday we have the open police meeting at Northam. This will be in the Residents association office at 6pm. The idea is that we will gather the concerns of the community and identify the top three which we will then work on for the next few months. There will be two of these meetings a year. We will also have four meetings a year where residents and agencies will identify three community priorities and what we are all going to do to try to sort out the problems.
This weekend was Halloween and we’re now leading up to Bonfire night. Traditionally this is a busy time for the police, with lots of reports of anti-social behaviour. We are quite fortunate in that we do not suffer from too much juvenile nuisance, however we have allocated officers to patrols each evening, to respond to any calls and to intervene with any youngsters we see about. This should also give reassurance to the residents. We distributed plenty of the 'No trick or treat here please' posters to help those who don’t want to be disturbed by the youngsters.
Dick
Well I was fortunate to have some leave from last Friday until Thursday. A very nice break down to North Devon where I did a bit more of the South West Coastal path, had a few cream teas and sampled some Devon Ale, and of course a pint or two of cloudy scrumpy. Back to work now though.
Thursday was a good day. We took 20 of the Junior PCSO to Fairthorne Manor YMCA activity centre for the day. It was really good and the children behaved themselves - well most of them. The weather held out and children completed a team challenge, obstacle course and some rock climbing. We took the 20 children with the best attendance at the schemes. We were accompanied by a film crew from CASS productions who are making a film about the Junior PCSO Schemes, funding has been supplied by Swaythling Housing who have supported the schemes and been involved from the very start in 2007. This was the third day of filming. On Tuesday they filmed, amongst other things, a group of Junior PCSOs visiting St Marys fire station and on Wednesday we had a series of activities that the juniors often do, to be shown on the film. We were also very lucky that the Chief Constable came down to see the schemes and was interviewed by some of the children. We are looking forward to reviewing the footage and making sure we get the right pieces in the final film.
We have been busy in St Mary St again. PC Jeanette Denton attended the St Mary's Traders Association meeting on Monday - no major issues raised for us. At the meeting she was able to mention the traffic enforcement we have been doing following complaints of speeding in the street. The initiative involves a group of officers stopping cars, advising the drivers about the speed limit in St Marys Street and identifying and dealing with any offences that are disclosed. Each operation lasted about 1hour. This is the third, and each time we end up with about 8/9 fixed penalty tickets, mainly for not wearing seat belts. This has gone down really well with residents and the traders and we will be continuing the operations.
On Monday we have the open police meeting at Northam. This will be in the Residents association office at 6pm. The idea is that we will gather the concerns of the community and identify the top three which we will then work on for the next few months. There will be two of these meetings a year. We will also have four meetings a year where residents and agencies will identify three community priorities and what we are all going to do to try to sort out the problems.
This weekend was Halloween and we’re now leading up to Bonfire night. Traditionally this is a busy time for the police, with lots of reports of anti-social behaviour. We are quite fortunate in that we do not suffer from too much juvenile nuisance, however we have allocated officers to patrols each evening, to respond to any calls and to intervene with any youngsters we see about. This should also give reassurance to the residents. We distributed plenty of the 'No trick or treat here please' posters to help those who don’t want to be disturbed by the youngsters.
Dick
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