Good morning,
This week has been quite busy with various policing activities taking place in the City. Our Operation Momentum patrolling has continued, as with the continued support of Forcewide resources including the Armed Response Vehicles and Roads Crime Unit.
Last weekend we deployed a Passive Drug Dog operation in the City Centre, targeting a number of locations. Such operations are very visible with a number of officers deployed along with Dogs, which have a real impact in terms of both reassurance to members of the public and a deterrent to those who may think about carrying drugs. This also offers the opportunity for engagement with the public, both in person and received a great deal of interest on our social media account.
This resulted in 50 Stop Searches. Of which 11 were positive. We also arrested two people for possession of a bladed article.
We continue to target those involved in the supply of drugs in the City Centre, this includes gathering intelligence for the execution of search warrants aswell as targeting areas where drug activity takes place. Officers work closely with the CCTV Team aswell as other people who work in the City, such as Door Security. This was demonstrated last Friday night when males were spotted, who were suspected of supplying drugs, during the night time economy. Working with Door Staff and CCTV, the males were located and a stop search was carried out, resulting in both males being arrested.
This working relationship is also apparent during the day time, which was evident during an incident that took place on Thursday, when two males were sighted by security stealing from a shop. They monitored the males and alerted CCTV, who identified them getting into a vehicle, which was quickly intercepted by patrols from our Response Team. Both males were found to be in possession of a large amount of stolen property. They have subsequently been charged with theft and going equipped to steal. This is a great example of everyone working together resulting in quick arrests and the recovery of stolen property.
We continue to tackle anti social behaviour in the City. To provide officers with additional powers to deal with people causing problems, I authorised a Dispersal to be in operation throughout last weekend. This is an effective tactic which enables an early intervention to respond to poor behaviour and remove the individual from the City Centre demonstrating to them that such behaviour will not be tolerated. Unfortunately, we received reports of anti social behaviour taking place in the City on Tuesday evening. In response to this I authorised a further Dispersal to be in place until 1400hrs this afternoon. I am keen for us to be on the front foot when dealing with this type of behaviour in the City, and providing officers with a range of tools to tackle this helps us achieve this.
Similarly a male who has been causing some anti social behaviour in the City, has had sufficient evidence gathered against him, to justify the issuing of a Community Protection Notice. This will provide restrictions in terms of places he can go and how he can behave, and will result in action if he breaches this. We continue to target individuals who are causing issues with a view to restricting their behaviour in this way.
Training is taking place this week in relation to Project Vigilant, which is an initiative that aims to prevent sexual violence by targeting predatory behaviour in the night time economy. This uses bespoke behavioural observation training to upskill frontline officers in risk management and to encourage proactivity in spotting predatory behaviour. Once trained, plain-clothed officers can be deployed into the night-time economy to identify predatory sexual behaviour. Uniformed officers intervene to prevent this behaviour escalating into an offence. This will be an additional tactic that we will be able to deploy in the City.
We continue to place updates of the work we are doing on our Social Media accounts. If you are on Facebook please follow us. On our Chester Police page we report on the activity we’re carrying out and have appeals for information relating to incidents that have taken place.
We continue to utilise Residents Voice to identify the issues that are causing the public concern. As the survey is anonymous we try to feedback on social media the work we are doing to dela with these issues. Please continue to complete these surveys. Whilst it is called a Residents Voice survey, it is equally important we hear from those who work in the City, so this is open to everyone to complete. If you have completed it before, please complete it on a regular basis so we are kept up to date with the current issues that are causing concern.
The link to the survey is below, and should only take a few minutes to complete.
Resident’s voice | Cheshire Constabulary
If there are any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Kind regards,
James
James Wilson – Inspector – Chester Local Policing Unit
Chester Police Station| Blacon Avenue |Chester| Cheshire | CH1 5BD
Phone: 01606 364666 | Email: james.wilson@cheshire.pnn.police.uk
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