Back from leave.

Hello again. I am back from my leave. My wife and I went out to Canada to visit our son and family, great to see the grandchildren again. We had a few days in the Rockies – even saw 2 bears, which is more than we saw in the two and half years we spent out there in the 80’s when I was in the Army.

Back to work and there was quite a bit to catch up on. We have had the incident where a man was assaulted in Northam, went to hospital but was later found dead in Shirley. There have been several meetings in Northam regarding this and a lot of activity from our colleagues in the major crime team.

On Tuesday we had the St Marys PACT (Partners and Community Together) meeting and had the best attendance we have had for this meeting with 18 people coming along. Only one of the Community Priorities were changed. The drug litter issues in the bin area of Carpathia Drive was changed back to nuisance at the football cage in James St. Following the last meeting we spoke to the management of the Deanery Estate and they put locks on the door to the bin area at Carpathia Drive which seems to have reduced that problem, although we think the users may be using somewhere else on the estate now. James St cage has been on and off for months. Unfortunately, as I have mentioned before – it is a football facility and people use it for football (most of the time) but they are noisy and it is in close proximity to some flats. The other priorities of youth nuisance on Holyrood Estate and drug issues at Albion Towers play area were retained. The youth nuisance group in Holyrood – well actually they are more like young adults – the 16-19 age group – have been frequently particular properties that are causing problems and we are working with the council to try to sort that out. This group, which consists of people from all over the city, have been committing crime in various parts of the city, so have lots of officers chasing them. Three have been arrested and remanded in custody, several others arrested and on bail so we will keep chasing them.

This weekend is my VCS (Violent Crime Strategy) duty again. Tonight, Friday, was actually not a bad duty. We only had one arrest relating to the night time economy. That was a young girl arrested for being drunk and incapable in Town Quay. She was found lying on the ground, totally out of it. The officers wanted to take her home, but she refused all details, so in she came. Most venues closed by two o’clock and only a few were happy with the numbers of customers. It’s a hard time for them aswell. Of course, we are more than happy with this situation, although there was a nasty feeling in the air when everyone spilled into the streets when the venues closed, so we were lucky that there was not more trouble. I saw the street pastors once tonight, they really are good, they came down to do 1st Aid on a chap who was bleeding but did not know how he got the injury. We will have to see how Saturday goes, if I get time I will pop another blog on. My duty for VCS is a 12hr duty, 1830hrs to 0630hrs, but often I am still sorting out files and reports until 0630hrs – and by then all I want to do is go home. Anyway that’s where I will be in a few hours, grab a paper on the way home and sit down with a glass of red before bed.

See you later

Dick