Hello and welcome to my latest blog. It has been an extremely busy month for the Neighbourhood Policing Team as we have been working hard to focus on our daily business of being visible in our communities and focusing on local priorities.

The Newark team have welcomed two new Sergeants, Sgt Kate Taylor and T/Sgt Rishi Thobhani who both join us from other departments within the force.

They have a wealth of experience that they will bring, and I am confident this will be a huge benefit to the team.

The Local Policing Priorities for the period January – March were retail crime in Newark town centre, shop theft in Blidworth and Ollerton, and drug supply in Newark.

In respect of shop theft in Blidworth and Ollerton, the team have been focused on targeting those prolific offenders who cause the most harm to our communities. Since January 2025 we have taken on 36 shop theft investigations, 34 of which have resulted in a charge, caution or community resolution.

This is an exceptional success rate and is testament to the hard work of the team, and the cooperation of the stores in providing quality evidence for us to work with. We have and continue to have daily patrols around the stores most affected.

Likewise, in relation to retail crime in Newark Town Centre, the team have also been focused on those prolific offenders, who cause the most harm, and who so often are also linked to wider issues of ASB in the town centres.

In February, we conducted an additional 160 hours of hot spot patrols as part of the Hot Spot Patrol fund, on top of our daily taskings. I regularly hear that people want to see officers out on patrol, and the importance of this is not lost on me. Pc Rich Bombroffe and Pc Ryan Flaherty were on proactive cycle patrol at the start of last week and spotted a prolific shoplifter who was wanted. He was promptly arrested for shop theft offences. This is an example of the value of local officers, with knowledge of their local offenders, being out in the community, and it is something the team are committed to.

In respect of our final priority, drugs supply in Newark, we have benefitted from the support of our Road Crime Team who have been deployed in the district throughout January and February. Their presence has led to a number of good vehicles stops, and they have made arrests of individuals believed to be using drones to supply drugs into prison. The team are continuing to develop intelligence in respect of drug dealing, and as ever we rely on information and support from within the community.

If you have information you wish to share you can do so via 101, the force website or anonymously through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111

Unfortunately, during the half term holidays, we experienced a number of incidents of ASB around the YMCA centre in Newark. This was primarily a group of young people being obstructive and abusive to staff and disrupting the activities taking place. As a result, I took the decision to issue a Dispersal Notice for 48hrs for that location. This is not something I would do lightly, and it is a rare occurrence for Newark & Sherwood. Thankfully the issues subsided but I want to reassure everyone that we are making follow up enquiries to deal with the offenders appropriately and the team will be aware and prepared for any further issues as we head towards the summer months.

I have just set the Local Policing Priorities for April to June. The decision on what to select as a priority is in part based on community feedback, specifically through surveys administered via Notts Alerts. If you want to be part of this process then please sign up for Notts Alert, which is accessible via the Nottinghamshire Police website.

The new priorities are:

Shoplifting District Wide.

Antisocial behaviour in parks and open spaces.

Antisocial behaviour in Newark Town Centre.

We will continue to update you on our activities and planned events via our social media channels, so please look out for these updates.