Newton Aycliffe NPT Sergeant Mark Edwards begins his weekly blog on Aycliffe Today…
Well, first things first. I’d like to thank Aycliffe Today for inviting me to write a blog on here.
I’ll try and keep this relevant and interesting (after all, I guess you’re reading this because you want to know what’s going on here in the town and what the Police teams here are doing about it!).
The intention is to write a once weekly blog to keep people informed of what’s going on with crime and anti-social (ASB) across the town and also what’s happening with your local Police.
As this is the first entry I suppose I’ll start with some introductions. I’ve got 15 years experience as an operational cop, having worked at every station in the south of the County (Durham that is) – most of that time has been on the Response Teams although I’ve been in my current role for just over a year now.
I’m not native to Aycliffe, but am relatively local to the area, and I do care about issues that hurt the community. I might wear a uniform but, like most cops, I’m human.
So, that said – moving onto your local Police.
For those who don’t know we have different teams working in Newton Aycliffe. I supervise the Neighbourhood Policing Team – or NPT as we like to call it. My team is made up of a mixture of Police Constables and Police Community Support Officers (PCSO’s) who all work together for the same purpose – to address those quality of life issues that impact upon the communities.
The NPT look at those matters that can’t be resolved there and then with a quick fix and that require more protracted intervention.
You’ve got the Response Officers who work 24/7 and respond to the 999 calls and those incidents that warrant either an immediate or priority response – these are the cops that do the ‘blue-light’ runs.
There’s the Road Policing Unit (RPU) or Traffic – you may have encountered them, they’re the cops with fast cars who look after the Counties roads and who may have pulled those speeders amongst you over and gone over your motors with a fine tooth comb looking for defects!
And then there’s the Serious Crime Team (SCT) who were formerly known as C.I.D – their remit is in the name!
ASB continues to be one of the main focuses of the NPT and there currently stands a 14% reduction in recorded incidents of this nature compared to this time last year.
My Officers are committed to tackling ASB. I appreciate how frustrating these issues are for residents experiencing ASB and can only assure everyone that my team will do everything at their disposal at addressing it, working alongside our partner agencies.
The team hold regular access points at varying locations across the town including a unit on Upper Beveridge Walkway in the town centre that the town centre security kindly allow us to use – we will publicise these events using all available forums.
These are locations where members of the team will be at on specified dates and times to meet with members of the public who wish to come along and chat with them regarding any concerns they may have.
I would also like to remind all as to the PACT meetings that are held in each ward within the town which are forums in which members of the community can come along to and raise any issues with the aim of setting priorities that the Police and partner agencies will focus upon.
Overnight from Saturday 21st into the early hours of Sunday 22nd January a lot of criminal damage was caused to vehicles and dwellings within the area of The Turbinia and Hawkshead Place.
The majority of these crimes saw wing-mirrors kicked off cars and items thrown at houses – this was mindless criminality. My team and Officers from the SCT have been pursuing numerous enquiries into who is responsible (an arrest was made shortly after the time of the offences and a male is on bail whilst further investigation is carried out) exploring CCTV opportunities in the area and carrying out house-to-house enquiries.
We are appealing for anyone with any information to make contact with us to assist us in our efforts – I have no doubt that there will be some ‘Facebook’ or other social media related forum out there containing valuable information. The NPT or SCT can be contacted by ringing 101 and then entering 673 2682 when prompted for the extension.
I would like to raise awareness to motorists over the consequences of leaving items on display within cars. Despite past publicity we still attend reports of vehicle crime whereby cars had been left unlocked and insecure or where valuables had been left clearly on display on seats and so forth.
There are some crime prevention measures that you can adopt – these are little things that you may not have thought of, such as removing sat-nav holders from your vehicles. The presence of a sat nav holder obviously suggests to a potential crim that a sat nav is, or has been, used and may lead the offender to believe that the sat nav is within the glove compartment or hidden elsewhere within the car.
The obvious, and most simple, thing to do is LOCK your vehicle. Do not leave items in your car – even if you’re making a short trip remove your valuables when parking. It only takes a thief a matter of seconds to do the deed – these people know what they’re looking for even though they’re generally not well versed in much else in life!
Operation Hawkeye is an ongoing initiative where owners of vehicles that have been identified as potentially vulnerable are given crime prevention advice. Feel free to contact members of the team or the local Crime Prevention Officer for more advice.
I’m conscious of the length of this first entry so for those of you still reading (good on you, top marks for perseverance!).
I will sign off. Future entries will be shorter I promise, so until next time…
Be good.
Mark J Edwards
Newton Aycliffe NPT Sergeant
Your police team is on Facebook and Twitter!
In Facebook search ‘Newton Aycliffe Neighbourhood Policing Team’
Facebook: @AycliffeNPT
