A Great Start – Shoplifting – Night Time Safety – School Safety – Rural Patchwalk – Coracles
My community day in North West Leicestershire got off to a warm and sunny start in Measham. The Café on the Corner does a fantastic – and reasonably priced – breakfast. Creature comforts taken care of, I went free range to chat to passersby and business owners.
My first stop was the Age Concern coffee morning. The ladies there were full of praise for the police. They told me that the local officer – Trish – worked really hard at building a positive relationship with the village community. They said that anti social behaviour had gone down since Trish arrived. They all seemed to know her, so clearly this was an effective piece of community relations going on in Measham.
Passersby who I chatted with told me that they thought Measham was a low crime area with not much anti-social behaviour going on. They said that they saw the police out and about a fair bit – though obviously they would like to have more police on duty. So would I, but there are other demands on the public purse.
This glowingly positive picture was dented when I entered on shop and spoke to the manageress. She told me that shoplifting had increased rapidly over the past few months. And she was scathing about the criminal justice system. One persistent thief had been repeatedly caught red-handed and with CCTV evidence to support the case, the police had taken the thief to court. But the court imposed a fine – which had gone unpaid – and the thief was back out on the streets and stealing within hours.
I then moved on to Ashby-de-la-Zouch to meet with the local Inspector plus staff from North West Leicestershire District Council. We discussed a wide range of initiatives to keep the town safe both during daylight hours and at night. These included:
- Roadside checks of taxis
- Knife arch use
- Drug sniffer dog deployment
- Anti drink spiking campaigns
- Home safety
- Car crime
- Night time medical service
- CCTV in Market Street
- Anti-social behaviour hotspot patrols
- And much more
Moving on to Whitwick I visited the Holy Cross Primary Academy, where the children have been taking part in a programme we are running to give younger children safety advice – particularly about staying safe on-line.
After a chant with teacher Michelle I joined the children for a lively discussion about the programme. They seemed to have enjoyed it and – more importantly – had learned some important lessons about the need to be careful without being frightened by the big world out there.
Next was a stop to go out on patrol with PCSO McDonald on his beat around Kegworth, Diseworth and nearby villages. We looked at the site of “car cruising” offences and PCSO McDonald explained why the roads were so attractive to this criminal activity. We discussed ways in which the dangerous activity could be countered. We then moved on to some waste industrial land which was heavily used at weekends by off-road bikers who were using the land illegally and causing nuisance – and some danger – to nearby residents and businesses.
It was then back to Whitwick to meet with Anthony who runs a number of courses for youngsters from his wellbeing sanctuary. Anthony is already providing support to some of the youngsters from the People Zone in Whitwick and has plans to expand – including coracle making! That led us to realise that we were both fascinated by history and so into a conversation about the role of coracles in the spread of Christianity in early-Medieval Britain.
All in all a varied and interesting look into the policing of North West Leicestershire and the ways in which my office is helping to make our communities safer.
