Market Harborough Public Liaison Day
30 March 2023
After a cracking bacon bap at The Sandwich Shop in St Mary’s Road, I headed to Little Bowden Park to meet with Cllr Simon Whelband and some local residents. Cllr Whelband wanted to show me the new CCTV cameras that had been installed to keep an eye on the children’s playground and the sports pitches.
The park had been suffering from anti-social behaviour [ASB] and local residents had been complaining – with reason from what I could gather. Cllr Whelband is Chair of the Community Safety Partnership for Harborough. As such he brought together police, the borough council and partner organisations to deal with the issue. The new CCTV cameras are high definition and are monitored 24 hours a day. It was not long before their impact was felt and the ASB went into decline. The teenagers still congregate here, but they are quieter and less disruptive than previously. A good job I give so much funding from my budget to the Community Safety Partnership!
I then met with some local residents to discuss more specific issues before heading back to Police HQ to attend the moving memorial ceremony to mark the first anniversary of the tragic death of former Chief Constable Simon Cole. Like every one in the large crowd present, I bowed my head in prayer and marked a minute’s silence. Then I laid a wreath in the memorial garden to his memory.
It was then back to Market Harborough. At the police station I met with PC Swanwick and PC Collins. We climbed into their patrol car and set off around the area. We started in Little Bowden – rather ironically back in the same park where I started my day. The police officers repeated about the CCTV, but then added additional information about the patrolling strategy that the police had adopted. I won’t give the details here, but suffice to say that I was impressed at the way the strategy took account of the psychology of teenagers and of the geography of the park. Grand Stuff.
Then we went to look at a set of allotments where they had been more ASB, plus some shed break ins. This time it was a combination of targeted police patrolling and new “target hardening” [aka gates, fences and locks] which had got on top of the situation.
We ended up in the top end of the High Street. After a discussion about the low rate of street crime in the town and the rarity of shoplifting and other retail crimes, the police officers returned to their duties, while I strolled down the high street to talk to shop staff. They backed up the information from the officers – retail crime here is lower than in other places in the Force area.
