The Great Brickhill, Wing and Ivinghoe Neighbourhood Police Team would like to provide you with this newsletter to update you on the crime trends and figures for the last few months. Ordinarily I would update these at a community forum, which obviously cannot be held at this time. These should hopefully reassure you that in these strange times, we have still managed to keep crime low and maintain a normal service to your neighbourhoods.
The overriding picture for your neighbourhoods is that the overall crime has dropped when compared to the same period last year. The following figures shown are drawn from 1st March to 9th June and are compared to the same period last year:-
- Overall victim based crime has dropped by 31%.
- Residential burglaries have dropped by 75%, with only two being reported.
- Burglaries of sheds and garages have dropped by 60%.
- Commercial/burglaries to business premises have dropped by 22%.
- Theft of motor vehicles have reduced by 67%.
- Theft from motor vehicles have dropped by 36%.
- Interfering with motor vehicles has dropped by 71%.
Our Neighbourhood Priorities remain as before. These are:-
- Prevent and reduce rural crime
- Prevent and reduce Theft from Motor Vehicles
- Prevent and reduce Burglaries (to include sheds and garages).
The above figures show that we are succeeding in these priorities. The Eastern corridor of our Neighbourhood remains on our hotspot patrols and we will remain to upkeep these patrols to deter cross border criminals from using this area. We have remained in contact with Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Police to swap intelligence and assist one another in this location too.
The main issue we have seen an increase in during the last few months is in reports of ASB. This is unsurprising with breaches of the COVID19 social distancing reports coming in, which we have tried to manage via a forecwide response called OP RESTORE. We have made it our purpose to Engage and Explain to those who breached the guide lines, and issued fixed penalty notices to those who failed to adhere to them on several occasions.
We continue to have reports of improper use of the Pitstone Quarry, with persons trespassing onto this site to swim and sunbathe. We are working with Hertfordshire Police, the Transport Authorities and the Health and Safety Executive to try and resolve this issue.
The lockdown has naturally caused some tensions on existing Neighbourhood Disputes. We have taken robust actions where offences have been identified and worked with housing providers where appropriate to deal with tenancy breaches. In one circumstance civil injunctions have been placed on addresses to prevent re-occurrences of ASB. This will not be tolerated and we will do our best to act on such incidents, using our partner agencies when required.
With the likelihood of lockdown measures being loosened in coming months and more people leaving their homes to go to work, I would urge everyone to maintain good crime prevention practices at home:-
- Keep keys (particularly contactless keys) away from doors, and store in a metal tin to block any signal.
- Ensure all doors and windows are locked and secure.
- Consider use of a traditional steering lock on your vehicles.
- Any caravan or motorhome owners should use adequate wheel and towing locks. Consider use of tracking devices in them.
- Trades person must continue to remove tools from their vehicles when unattended and ensure they are marked and serial numbers kept.
We wish you well and thank you for your patience in adhering to social distancing guidelines.
Kind Regards
PC 5688 Matt Craker
Neighbourhood Supervisor for Great Brickhill, Wing and Ivinghoe district.