5th December 2024

Dear Partners,

I am writing to update you on neighbourhood Policing in our area, some of the good work we have been doing and plans for the future.

October and November 2024 brought with it some significant changes to the way Neighbourhood Policing is delivered in Nottinghamshire. The model has changed to ensure that we have more of our Neighbourhood officers in and around the communities that they serve.

We will be focussing on what is important to the communities and delivering this through our pillars of problem solving, targeted activity and community engagement.

Problem solving policing is about addressing community problems for the long term by looking at those issues that cause the most harm and looking at ranges of activity to address them. Preventing repeat offending, victimisation and allow us to earn the trust of our communities by responding to their concerns.

Targeted activity is about ensuring that our activity is focussed according to the needs of different communities, taking account of threat risk and harm and vulnerability, directing our activity and resources to have the maximum impact.

Community engagement is paramount, it is policing. It is so important to me and my team that we build strong relationships and respond to the communities needs and views, that we listen to the people who live and visit in our areas and importantly react, so they feel safe, and their views are valued.

I have increased the numbers of officers at each of our stations and we have redesigned our shift pattern to ensure our teams are in the areas they should be when they should be.

We are then able to address issues such as antisocial behaviour, Car cruising and drug related activity.

Reported and recorded crime is down on the City South from last year. Overall, we have seen a 12.7% reduction financial year to date. This equates to a reduction of 842 offences.

Most Importantly this equates to a reduction in victims across these areas.

Problem Solving

By adapting our governance procedures, we have established the current priorities for the Neighbourhood policing areas and looking at ways to address them by working with partners and other agencies.

The priorities for the next three months are;

ASB

I have identified that several significant issues are taking place in your areas, that comes under the heading of antisocial Behaviour.

You have told us that antisocial driving use of motor vehicles and speeding is a concern, as is intimidating and antisocial behaviour in our communities.

Drugs

Drugs continues to be a priority as it is intrinsically linked with many other crimes and taking a strong approach to drugs impacts on other areas. Again, the neighbourhood policing teams have been working together to execute drugs warrants and carry out proactive patrols on the City South. The City South will carry on targeting drug offenders in the bid to hopefully send out a message that this kind of activity will not be tolerated. 

Acquisitive crime 

Acquisitive crime is a priority due to the detrimental impact it has on its victims. so, we will continue to positively deal with robbery, thefts, shop thefts, motor vehicle related offences and burglary.

We have established Operation Wheelspin which is a new approach to tackling Car Cruising on The Dales and Clifton areas. Use of Dispersal order at weekends combined with technology in the form of new ANPR cameras is enabling us to address this issue for the long term. I am bidding for an addition mobile camera to be used in these areas.

We have installed new and improved CCTV systems in St Anns and Clifton, alongside our ASB hotspot initiative. 

We worked with colleagues from a number of agencies on a day of action on St Anns Chase to improve safety in the area and remove risky and untidy areas of this key feature of the community.

We have been using immediate justice schemes to offer reparation, litter picking and contributing to the community.

By working with our colleagues in the council we have executed and enforced a number of closure orders, that remove risky or problematic tenants from addresses, enabling us to ensure people feel safe in their homes and support other work in areas such Bentinck Court Sneinton , Beauvale Road in the Meadows

Our Safer Streets 5 program continues to run in Clifton.

Targeted Activity

St Anns Chase Day of action crossed all three of our Pillars but was an example of working together with partners and communities to address a number of issues in one day. We will be doing a similar day of action at Clifton in the new year.

My teams have been doing weekly enforcements such as warrants, arrests and operational activity for drugs and knife crime across all five areas. This is supplemented with targeted patrols in areas where we know this type of offending and risk presents itself. 

The ASB hotspot program funds high visibility patrols in the St Anns Well Road beat and River green beat of Clifton, it is through this fund that I have secured additional CCTV for the area.

Community engagement

Beat surgeries on each of our areas has enabled the community to come and speak to us about issues on their areas in a setting that makes them feel secure and comfortable. Those at the Bridgeway centre have been particularly beneficial.

Notts alert is an application I encourage the residents to sign up to as it enables them to have their voice in the policing of the City South but also get updates and alerts with regards to police activity.

As the force lead for engagement with Asylum seekers and refugees, we carry out drop ins at locations where there is a high concentration of these communities alongside the national refugee forum and Nottingham city council. The aim is to ensure they feel welcome in our city and understand the concerns they have so we can best respond to tensions and fears.

In St Anns we are working with St Anns Collaborative to look at opportunities to engage with young people and divert young people from risky behaviour, also by giving them a sense of investment and belonging in the community, Jerome Edwards and Support through sport hold football and basketball sessions at the Brendan Lawrence centre every week and we are funding this for a further 12 months.

Partners in the Collaborative such as the Chase Centre, St Anns allotments and Emmanuel Church have been asked to come up with their own concepts for interaction with young people to make sure this is a service that is available to all.

Part of Safer Streets 5 is an attitudinal change program which is currently canvassing and speaking to young people to understand what the best service for them looks like and how we can deliver it in conjunction with Nottingham Trent University and Clifton.

Residents of the City South should feel assured that we are listening to the concerns that they have and are committed to working to address them.

Please do not hesitate to contact any of the teams whose details are found on the Notts police website or through 101 or Notts alert.

Yours Sincerely

Steve Dalby

Neighbourhood Policing

St Anns, Mapperley, Sneinton and The Dales, Meadows, Clifton East & West