The Group received a
presentation from the Neighbourhood Policing Inspector for Mid
Devon.
- In addition to the
Inspector, there were currently 8 Police Constables and 6 Police
Community Support Officers (PCSO) who covered the mid Devon area.
Following the promotion of Sergeant Simon Andrews the
Sergeant’s post was currently vacant.
- Performance meetings
were held monthly looking at performance indicators, crime, fraud,
domestic abuse, anti-social behaviour, crime trends and issues
within certain localities.
- Mid Devon had 3
Police Stations one in Crediton,
Cullompton and Tiverton and the team of 15 officers and staff were
split equally between those stations. Due to the rural nature of
Mid Devon, response times could be challenging but they had stepped
away from officers all being in one hub to responding direct from
the local Police Stations so there should be an improvement in
response times.
- The Police and Crime
Commissioner had just announced that a significant part of her plan
would be tackling Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB). ASB could cover a
significant amount of issues some of which were criminal and some
that were not. It covered anything from dog fouling, speeding,
nuisance behaviour to drunk and disorderly. The Police had worked
with the Council and Social Services in looking at the escalation
process which looked at tackling both young and older people. Using
the escalation process the Police and the Council tried to
intervene at each stage working with partner agencies to try and
reduce ASB.
- Recently, there had
been problems in Tiverton around ASB involving young people. The
Police working with the Council and Social Services had followed
not just a criminal justice focussed approach but a joined up
approach in terms of safeguarding and recognising vulnerability.
Questions were asked about the cause of that person’s ASB,
was it their home? Was there someone grooming them? Was child
sexual exploitation involved? All the partner organisations were
brought together with the common goal of making that person safe
whilst recognising that that person had made the community feel
unsafe. In the autumn of 2024 there had been an increase in drug
and drink related ASB in an adult cohort, the Police had pursued
them through the criminal justice route to ensure that Criminal
Behaviour Orders (CBO) were sought, as a result 3 or 4 main
offenders received lengthy custodial sentences. That had resulted
in a significant improvement in Tiverton town centre.
- Crediton Town Council had worked
with the Police and the District Council to enforce Public Space
Protection Orders (PSPO) and so reduce ASB that way.
- Crime Trends Reports
were available on-line. The Police had moved away from producing
reports for Parish Councils as all the information was available
on-line at www.police.uk .There
had been a rise in dwelling house burglaries and performance car
thefts which formed part of wider operations tactics and was held
by one of the Police’s investigative divisions.
- As mid Devon was
predominantly a rural community and as spring had arrived, the
current theme was livestock worrying and livestock theft along with
responsible dog ownership.
- The local Police Team
still had to tackle organised crime groups and recently had closed
a really significant cannabis farm in Cullompton.
- The ASB escalation process included: Letter 1,
Letter 2 and an Acceptable Behaviour Contract. That got the Police across the stages of telling people
‘your behaviour is unacceptable if you don't stop this,
you're going to get another warning letter’, but eventually
that would turn into either; a civil injunction at court or the
perpetrator ending up with a criminal record with the police
looking at community protection warnings and community protection
notices.
- The
Inspector was in favour of using civil legislation to prevent
escalation in crime, as an example he mentioned ‘gang
injunctions’ and tackling ‘legal highs’. Further
Acts were coming through Parliament which would give the Police
additional powers.
Discussion took
place regarding:
·
No effect on crime or ASB had been seen
by the dimming and switching off the street lights in rural areas,
if ASB continued then the Inspector would have concerns if that
policy was rolled out across Tiverton.
·
County Lines were everywhere. Police
Officers were trained in recognising it and training should be
rolled out to partner agencies too.
·
The ASB in the Tiverton multi-storey
car park that was getting out of control and needed to be addressed
by the Police. There was a risk to life with slates being dropped
from the top floor.
There was a new Crime Management Investigation Team
so that most of the everyday reports of crime, not serious complex
crime investigations, went to a central point to be managed. There
were a lot of new officers in that team and there had been some
confusion as to the seriousness of the situation. Reports of ASB in
the car park had dropped off but if the behaviour was continuing,
reports of that behaviour should continue to be made. If the Police
saw a month on month increase in reporting of crime then that
assisted the Inspector in getting more staff. Reports of crime,
ideally should be made through the website.
·
The Head of Finance, Property and
Climate Resilience informed Members that there was currently
underway a review of security in the Tiverton multi-storey car park
with a significant project planned for the site which would enhance
the critical nature of securing the site and preventing anyone from
getting up to the higher levels.
·
The Police did have a link to the CCTV
control room, there were two radios in the control room, one for
Exeter and one for East and Mid Devon.
The situation had improved and the CCTV Team were responsive to
requests from the Police.
·
ASB at Moorhayes and the recent Police meeting with
residents from there. Moorhayes would
continue to be a policing priority for Police in Tiverton. It
appeared to be an evening and night time issue and the Inspector
would seek more resourcing from a wider area if the problems
persisted.
·
Vandalism at the Tiverton Town
Allotments.
·
Police priorities were set largely from
engagement with the public and partners identifying trends in
crime, so continued reporting of crime would influence
priorities.
·
The most effective way of contacting
the Police for non-emergency matters was via the website using the
on-line forms or Chat, however, if people wanted to get hold of a
team individually, the e-mail addresses were:
crediton@devonandcornwall.pnn.police.uk
or cullompton@devonandcornwall.pnn.police.uk
or tiverton@devonandcornwall.pnn.police.uk
.
·
Shop theft was a continuing problem.
The Police were working with an external private company who worked
with major brands and shops who were building an intelligence
database looking at organised crime gangs in shoplifting. The
Tiverton team did concentrate on those who were prolific
offenders. It was important that
shoplifting offences were still reported to the Police. There had
been a 2% increase in shoplifting across the County.
·
A new specialist in business crime was
working from the Police headquarters.
·
A high level of speeding cars on the
B3181 at Willand particularly at times
when the M5 was closed for overnight works. Would it be possible
for the Police to monitor traffic speed the next time the M5 was
closed? The Inspector asked to see the parish’s Vehicle
Activated Sign data to assist him in formulating a case for that
resource.
·
The Inspector invited Councillors to
give him ideas of how to get his message out to communities
particularly to make reports of crime.